Forget it I'll Just Die Alone
by Nells729
Summary: Danny and Mindy navigate through the ups and downs of life. Will their friendship survive and possibly even evolve into something more?
1. Chapter 1 - Cheers!

**I began this little story/scenario when Casey was out of the picture and the timeline may not actually fit into how the events are playing out in the show so I apologize in advance if I end up confusing anyone. This is my first story EVER so please be easy on me :) **

CHAPTER 1

Mindy took a look at herself in her full length mirror. "Not too bad, girl. Not too bad" she smiled as she shifted her body around trying to catch a glimpse of her butt. The green skirt she was wearing was a little snug but accentuated her curves just the way she liked. "Now let's just hope that this date is worth the minor fortune I spent on these heels." She bent down and peeled the leather pumps over her smooth and lotion lathered feet. "James, I hope you're ready for this!" she grinned as she waved her hands down her blouse and skirt and gave her best seductive pose.

It was 7:34 pm as she left her apartment. Late as usual, but once James took a look at her, he would appreciate that extra time it took her to get dressed. The bar they had mutually agreed on meeting at was a little less fancy than she had remembered. Of course, she was slightly buzzed the last time she was here. Okay, okay…drunk. Mindy was drunk. But that first hour she could clearly recall…and she thought it had been slightly more elegant. It looked like a simple karaoke bar. Great, she thought, I hope this evening is NOT another bust. She glanced at her outfit, feeling a bit overdressed.

As she found a seat at the bar, she couldn't help but think back to the last time she had seen James. They compromised on a romantic picnic lunch and met at the park near her apartment. She looked absolutely ravishing in her yellow sun dress and flats; he brought the sandwiches and she brought the wine. The lunch started nicely, her lecturing him the importance of owning a DVR, her idea of a good ice maker and the difference between heels and stilettos, in that order.

"Well, it really depends on the dress or skirt you're wearing. And don't get me started on wearing heels with jeans…Well, we have to differentiate regular jeans to skinny jeans. I don't do skinny jeans, although they totally are great for my ass, they just make me feel sausage-y. And while sausage itself is great, don't get me wrong… I prefer my curves be seen in a more natural jean…" before she could finish her thought, she threw her hand down to her ankle. Piercing pain followed by a series of similar shots of heat and pain. "Oh my God! Oh My God!" She frantically got up and started pounding her hands to her legs. "Killer Ants! Help me! Help me! Oh My God! I am too young to die, James! Help me, please! Killer Ants!" After several moments of confusion, James finally realized what was happening and in one effortless swoop, had his arms around her body and hoisted her up over his shoulder. It was a sight! Her beautiful sun dress flowing in the wind as she was carried away…she tried to forget the part where her butt was out in the open for everyone to see. It's a good thing that she had chosen nice panties. She didn't care where she was taken to, she just desperately wanted away from those horrid ants.

Turns out Mindy was allergic to the ant bites, all 30 of them. The anthills had been there all along. "So this place doubles as a baseball field, I guess" she casually said to James as she was setting up their blanket. Yeah, those pitcher's mounds were _not_ pitcher's mounds... Her legs were swollen, she had small bumps all over her body from her reaction to the ant bites. Their romantic picnic lunch was postponed.

So here she is, at the bar, almost a full 2 weeks later, feeling as beautiful as ever. She glances down at her phone and sees the time. It is 7:54 and not a call, not a text, nothing from James. Maybe he stopped by to get me a nice gift. She thought, smiling to herself. I hope it's a candle. Ooh, I need a peppermint scented candle. I should call him and if he's getting me a candle, I will casually mention the scent that I want. She dialed his number. No answer. Hmm, that's strange. She orders another martini and passes the time by making small talk with the cute blonde bartender and eventually goes on stage to sing karaoke. After what seems like an eternity, she sits down again and Mindy casually glances at her phone and sees the digital numbers blaring back at her - 8:27 pm. What the hell?! Is he ok? Did he get mugged and is his beat up body sprawled on a dirty street down the block? Did he get me yellow roses only to realize that he wanted to get me red roses and had to go back and buy more? Did the weird dude at the corner hot dog stand finally come through on his threat to eliminate any other suitors so he'd be my only one? ..Well, that hot dog guy DOES give me a hell of a discount on my favorite dog and adding his special sauce to them…wait, NO. Something is definitely wrong. She dialed his number again. No answer. It slowly dawned on her, "This is not happening. Mindy Lahiri does not get stood up, looking THIS hot!" she said out loud, causing the man sitting next to her to give her a puzzled look. She ordered another martini, against her better judgment because she was already feeling the effects of the previous drinks, when her phone buzzes. A text from James simply reading "can't make it. you're a great girl but this would never have worked out. you're too high maintenance."

Oh, hell no. Things like this should not happen to her. Within the following 10 seconds, she felt a range of emotions, from anger, to disappointment, to self-doubt and eventually going back to anger. Without realizing what she was doing, she once again pulled out her phone and dialed a number.

"Hello?" the deep male voice answered. " Mindy? Are you there? I can hear you breathing. Don't pretend that you can't hear me. I'm hanging up now…. I'm about to order Chinese from your favorite place…." He knew that she could not resist.

"Oooh, Danny! Could you order my favorite soup and an egg roll? I had pizza and a bagel for lunch, but what the hell…."

"No, Min. I am not ordering Chinese now! What's up? Aren't you on yet another one of your hot dates tonight?" he said, sounding more upset than he wanted to let on.

"For your information, I was stood up. I look absolutely gorgeous tonight so it's his loss. Get this, he said that I AM high maintenance! The nerve! I am not high maintenance, Danny." She felt her voice rising each second, "If anything, I would consider myself average maintenance. Sometimes less! For example, if it's a Friday night and I know that I don't have to go out of my apartment until Sunday, and there's a good chance that I can get some solo time with Tom Hanks or Meg Ryan during a ROM-com marathon I will put on NO makeup, Danny! Did you hear me, NO MAKEUP! How is that high maintenance?" She had begun to walk around the bar aimlessly at this point. "Anyways, I totally need your company. Please come, Danny, please! I don't want these people to think that I was stood up. I'm too beautiful and smart and witty to be left alone tonight. I just need to pretend you were my date. Please, please, please Danny. I need you." She was batting her eyes although he could not see her.

_I need you._ God, she knew how to get under his skin. Those words made his voice hitch and he let out an unintentional sigh. Quickly recovering, he was able to groan "Is there a point to this story? I am tired, Min. I had a C-section tonight and just got home" …How could this woman get him so worked up and yet make him feel so protective over… " Where are you?" he paused a moment once he heard what appeared to be a crowd chanting..."Are they chanting your name? God, Mindy, what are you doing? Body shots? Are you at another college frat party?! " He finished saying this but was already getting up and grabbing his car keys.

"I'm at Frankie's, you know, that karaoke Bar. The place where you picked a very drunk Gwen and I up after the finale of Sex and the City? Anyways, I was doing some karaoke just now and must say, I am the next best thing to Céline Dion. I would like to think it's because Jack and I would totally have been soul mates and we would have found a way to float on that door together. Rose was so selfish. She never deserved Jack…" her voice trailed off as she began chanting her own name, joining the crowd behind her.

"Min, stay right there. I will go pick you up. Stay there! Min…can you hear me?"

"Yeah, I'm here. Just come, please, Dan. I will make it worth your while. While you're here, I am totally making you sing Lady Gaga with me. I always wondered how a male rendition of 'Paparazzi' would sound…"

"Mindy, okay, if that is you trying to convince me to go, it's having the opposite effect" he said as he ended the call.

He huffed under his breath. This woman will be the death of me, he thought. His next thought was That bastard! How dare that jackass James stand Mindy up? Doesn't he know that she would be left alone, at a bar?!

Danny bailing Mindy out of very awkward situations or being there for her after failed dates seemed to happening very often, too often. He was not sure if he liked or hated being her "go-to" guy. Hey, being a friend was better than not being anything to her, right? he wondered as he went to his closet for something to change into before heading out towards the bar.

He should have imagined the sight that greeted him upon walking through the front door of the bar. Mindy, surrounded by a group of men, belting out the theme song of Cheers. She looked crazy, she looked drunk…but damn it, she looked beautiful. Danny grinned and huffed under his breath. "Show is over, guys!" he yelled as he walked up to Mindy and put his hand around her waist to escort her away from her seat.

"Danny! Hey, nice of you to finally join us! Hey, everyone! This is Danny! See, I DID NOT GET STOOD UP!" she had to yell around the room but no one seemed to care. "He's my handsome hero! Whoa, seriously, Danny. What the hell? Did you get just cuter on the way over here? Sexy man…" .

Danny grinned at her but knew it was nothing more than the alcohol talking, she had a tendency of getting flirtatious she drank. Okay, he had to admit that he took an extra 5 minutes before heading out to change into some decent clothes. It was so that she wouldn't make fun of him and his "old guy" clothes, yeah, that's what it was. He wasn't convincing himself.

"Oh, no! We are not leaving until you sing!" she squealed as he tried to lead her away from her seat towards the exit. She stopped dead in her tracks.

"No. That is not happening. You've given everyone here a show already. I wouldn't want to steal your fame at this place..' He gave her a lopsided smile.

God, he looks like an Italian Stallion when he does that, she thought to herself. "Damn it, Danny. You came way out here for me. Now suck it. You can be an old man on your own time." She said harshly. He simply raised his eyebrows in return. "Please?" she puckered her lips and widened her eyes, trying her best to imitate a sad puppy dog.

"No. Not going to happen! And quit doing that, you look like weird. Put those eyes away!" he shook his head and waved his hands frantically across just to emphasize how much he hated the idea of singing.

"Fine, Mr. I Am Old and I Hate Life, but you will at least sit through a few songs of my choosing!"

"Fine. Whatever, but I need a drink before having to endure such torture. I don't like the sound of dignity being thrown on the floor…or the sound of dying cats."

She punched him playfully in the arm and ran up to the stage. The cheers coming from the crowd made Danny smile to himself. She has this effect on everyone. He _was_ glad to be her go-to guy. Even if it means putting his life on hold at times, he was here with her and that made him happy. He didn't even notice that a huge smile had managed to creep across his face.

"This is for my good friend, Danny. No matter how sweaty and old you are, you are amazing!" she struck a pose as the music began. She began singing "Thank you for Being a Friend, travel down the road and back again…"

Where do I know this from? It was that show with the old ladies…the one that Mindy forced me to watch a marathon on a few months back. He looked around the room, everyone's eyes darting between Mindy, who was rocking it out on stage and him, looking absolutely embarrassed. She did love to make a scene.

One full hour later, they left the karaoke bar but not before she was able to get the entire room to re-enact the bar scene from 27 Dresses, singing Bennie and the Jets.

"Seriously, Danny, was this not the best night for karaoke or what?" she said as the car pulled away from the bar.

"If it weren't for the table of hot girls next to me, I don't know if I would have been able to take one more second of it" he said as he shot Mindy a quick wink.

"Whatever, old creeper. I had fun. I even forgot the disappointment and heartbreak of being stood up." her face went pensive for a moment. She turned to Danny, put her hand on his arm "Thank you, Danny, for coming tonight. I know you would have preferred being home, watching some fishing reality show and contemplating life and all of its miseries. So, thanks for doing this for me, really"

Danny barely heard anything coming from her. He focused on the warmth of her hand slightly resting on his arm. He worried that she would be able to feel his heartbeat through his arm, because to him it was beating so loud and he could feel his blood through every vein in his body.

His voice trembled but he was able to maintain control, "No problem, Min. For the record, your rendition of the Cheers theme song was questionable. I am pretty sure that it says 'Where everybody knows your name' and not 'Where everybody knows your meme' How do you even know that song to begin with?! It's not a new show and it definitely did not run on Lifetime or Hallmark. I doubt Lady Gaga or Britney Spears have done a cover of that."

"First off" she said pointing her finger in the air to prove a point "Lady Gaga and Britney Spears are above doing covers of ANY songs. They are true artists and do not need to prove themselves by parading songs …" her voice turned warmer as she continued "..and secondly, my father and I always watched that show together. It is one of my good memories of him" she smiled at Danny, who looked surprised.

"Well, I must say I'm impressed. You sang your heart out tonight. If you get a call from The Voice, it was me who submitted the video" he laughed.

"Oh my god! That would be amazing! Did you really send in a video?" she responded eagerly.

"No. Of course not. I would have broken my phone's camcorder. The world is not ready for you, Min." he looked over to

"Well, that just crushed my hopes of becoming a household name. I would have thrown the best A-list parties. Hangin' with Jay-Z and Beyonce… and who says camcorder?! Seriously, you need to catch up with the times, dude. It would be less embarrassing when we hang" she shook her head at him in disapproval.

After several minutes of jokes and random topics, including geek technology and Beyoncé, they arrived at Mindy's apartment. They both got out of the car and stood on the sidewalk next to her building.

"Well, good night. Danny, again…I really am grateful for you. Other than being stood up, tonight was a good night…stupid James" her heart swelled and skipped a beat as she looked at him. She always seemed to have a good night with him. He was always there for her, always willing to 'hang' and watch her shows, drive her places. Somehow, without realizing it, Mindy had allowed Danny to become her dearest friend, beside Gwen of course. She glanced up at him. She could see his forehead glistening with sweat. Oh, dear sweet sweaty Danny. _ I love you_, she thought. Wait, what? Where did that come from? What the hell am I thinking? This was Danny. Danny Castellano. She did NOT love him. She liked him a lot. She appreciated his loyalty to her, even though he would refuse to acknowledge it. She liked the fact that he always looked at her with friendly eyes, if not friendly words. She felt at home with him. She could do whatever antics she wanted to do and know that he would never leave her side. The ups and downs of her relationships, he was there to support, to check her back into reality, to console when things went awry. Danny. Awkward and solitary Danny. _I love you._ What? Again?!

"Umm…Min? I'm going to start charging you taxi fare for this you know, right? A doctor's time isn't cheap… Helllllloooo?" He waved his hand in front of her dazed face.

"Um, oh yeah! I should totally charge YOU for allowing you to be seen with me in public' his words woke her from her strange thoughts. She suddenly felt awkward with him. He was so close to her. She felt the urge to pull him into a tight hug but knew that he wouldn't go for that. Her heart began to race. Now SHE felt like the sweaty one.

"Soooo, well, I guess I will see you Monday" he said as he fidgeted his car keys in his sweaty hands. God, she is beautiful, he thought. Why is she acting so nervous? He could feel a change in her demeanor from just moments ago.

'Yeah, see you Monday…" she said slowly, her mind already wondering what to say next. "Hey, Danny?" she asked.

"Yeah?" turning back as he was already walking towards his car door.

"Do you want to come up? I think I can find my DVD collection of Cheers. Want to watch?" She said hesitantly but then her lips inched upwards forming a full smile.

"Are you sure? I know Legally Blonde is on tonight and I would hate for you to miss it just to hang out with an old creeper" he chuckled. It was all he could do to keep himself from running towards her apartment. There was something different about Mindy tonight. He could not get his head around it. The way she was acting slightly nervous, the way she was looking at him, it was different. He liked the change.

"Yes, I am sure." she responded with a quick eye roll. "Besides, Legally Blonde just isn't the same for me anymore, not after Reese Witherspoon's arrest. I know I'll be able to forgive her in time, but it's still too soon…wait! How do YOU know that Legally Blonde is on tonight?!" she jumped over to him and grabbed his shoulders, pseudo shaking him. "Danny Castellano, are you telling me that you know when a romantic comedy is on TV?! I never thought I could be this happy…" she wiped an imaginary tear from her cheek as she linked her arm in his and tried to direct him towards her apartment.

"No, god, no. I only remembered you mentioning it to me earlier this week. Remember? When you were explaining the supposed perfect length to a pencil skirt. You started rambling about Reese Whateverspoon and her perfect legs and eventually that meaningless conversation led you to it being on this weekend…" His attempt to cover up that he remembered EVERYTHING she ever said to him was hopeless. There was no winning with Mindy. She had him and he knew it. He accepted defeat and they both smiled to each other and headed towards her apartment, arms linked together.

TO BE CONTINUED


	2. Chapter 2 - A Phone Call

CHAPTER 2

Mindy and Danny were both quiet in the elevator up to her apartment. Each preoccupied with their thoughts.

Danny glanced over at Mindy. She looks nervous, he thought, and why the hell is this elevator so stuffy? He could feel the perspiration rolling down the side of his cheek. He wiped the beads of sweat away from his face just as the elevator door rang out, announcing that they had reached the desired floor.

Instinctively, Danny placed his hand on Mindy's arm guiding her out of the elevator. This was not the first time they had made physical contact, but Mindy was strangely aware of it being the first time her body shuddered at his touch. Not more than 4 hours ago, Danny had been _just_ Danny and yet now she felt like strangely awkward around him. Why did I invite him up? she thought as she began to look for her keys. And how is it that the damned keys always fall to the bottom of this purse?! I really need keyless entry…

She worried that her nerves would get the best of her as she attempted to get the key into the keyhole but in one try, she was able to effortlessly get the key in and open the door. And just like that, they were inside her apartment.

She immediately took off her heels and told him to make himself at home. It dawned on her how formal she sounded. Yes, he was a guest in her home, but this definitely was not the first time he had been over with just the two of them.

Danny was much better at hiding his emotions. He rallied his spirits and plopped down on her couch. "So, got any popcorn? We need popcorn if we're going to watch this stuff." he said as he looked over at her.

"Yeah, it's in the pantry. Stick it in the microwave, will you? I desperately need to get out of these clothes!" She was able to say before she reached her bedroom door, softly closing it behind her.

Danny got up from the couch and wiped his hands together. "Let's do this" he said out loud. He casually walked over to Mindy's pantry and found that she had an entire shelf dedicated to popcorn, perfectly arranged and labeled. She had sweet popcorn, extra butter, light butter, and some odd ones like nacho and ranch flavored popcorn. He let out a sigh and shrugged his shoulders, leave it to Mindy to be ridiculous with something like popcorn. He grabbed one of each, knowing that Mindy would start an argument over whichever he had decided on.

As he placed the first bag into the microwave, Mindy was searching for the perfect set of pajamas. " I totally could be comfy in these fleece flower print PJ's but the static cling totally makes them ride up my ass," she said out loud as she held up a pair of pink and orange pajama bottoms, tilting her head as if it would help form a decision, "and although I totally think my ass is worth looking at, maybe I should just go for something simple… for Danny." This last statement she said in a more hushed voice, clearly not wanting Danny to overhear, lest he be listening to her through her door. The thought of him standing at her bedroom door made her smile. She thought back to just a few moments before as he placed his sweaty hand on her arm, walking off of the elevator.

The very loud sound of a phone ringing in her living room redirected her thoughts. The phone was definitely not hers, she thought as she hurriedly glanced to her bed where her phone was. She stepped closer to the door, leaning her ear against the solid wood frame attempting to hear whatever noise was coming from her living room. This isn't trying to eavesdrop, she tried to convince herself.

Danny was just settling back on the couch, with one bag of popped kernels when his phone started ringing.

He did not recognize the ringtone but his faced grimaced when he realized who was calling. What the crap does he want, Danny thought. I could just let it go to voice mail, he has nothing to say to me tonight that can't wait. He decided not to answer but was then overcome by the curiosity of knowing what Paul wanted. He stared at the phone intently for what seemed like a full two minutes, waiting to see if Paul left a voice mail. Finally, the phone lit up and buzzed at him. '1 new voice mail' plastered across the phone screen along with a photo of Dr. Paul Leotard. He picked up his phone and swiped the screen to retrieve the message, just as Mindy lightly tip-toed out of her bedroom, wearing a light blue pajama blouse with matching pajama bottoms. He couldn't help it, his body simply froze at the sight of Mindy stepping out of her room. He wasn't really sure why he felt so surprised, he had already known that she was changing into pajamas. He realized that it wasn't so much that she had changed simply _what_ she had changed into. The way the soft shade of blue complimented her dark complexion and the way that the thin material hung perfectly against the silhouette of her figure. He never realized that something so intimate such as pajamas could make him react this way.

"Did I hear a phone ringing?' she asked. She knew that she definitely heard a phone ringing but desperately needed to break Danny's gaze. She felt his eyes devour every part of her body as she stepped out of her bedroom. She waited a bit longer than necessary to finally say something, she had to admit to herself that she was loving how his eyes made their way up her body. She felt unusually self-conscious but liked it. His eyes were telling her she was beautiful and she had to stop herself from closing her eyes to soak in the moment.

He mumbled a response and almost dropped the phone from his stumbling hands. He convinced himself she didn't notice him gawking at her, although he could perceive a slight smile across her lips. "Yeah, I got a call from that asshole who screwed my wife" he croaked.

"Ex-wife, Danny, let's be clear on that. Ex-wife" she said matter-of-factly, over emphasizing the _ex_. "What does he want?! Please don't say he wants his job back, because he can't have it! I have worked my ass off making one too many friends there, Danny, for everyone to love me. I spend too much time getting ready the morning to be the cutest one there to have some random ex-model take that all away from me. I was near an emotional meltdown when he tried to replace me, Danny, I refuse to let that happen again!" She stopped only to gasp for more air. Before she could continue, Danny interrupted.

"Hold your horses, Min," he said, putting his hand up in the air to stop her rant, "I haven't heard his message yet. I didn't feel like answering… I was just about to listen to the message when you came out of the bedroom." He quickly averted his eyes from her as he felt awkward saying that last sentence because it immediately reminded him of his staring at her inappropriately earlier.

"Well, what the hell are you waiting for?! Listen to it, Danny. I need to know if I need to call him myself to discourage him from trying to steal my place in the office!" she tried to grab the phone out of his hand.

Danny got up from the couch and began listening to the message. "Put it on speaker, Danny, I need to know what that little bastard is saying about me…" Mindy said behind him.

Danny gave her a head nod and mouthed out 'no' and placed the phone to his ear, listening to Paul's words. The first part of the recording was uneventful and Danny almost deleted the message without hearing everything. More than halfway into the message, he heard something that stopped him cold.

Mindy anxiously watched Danny pacing her living room until he suddenly stopped moving. His facial expression said that the message was important. The color from his face slowly drained and his eyes widened as he put his phone back in his pocket and slowly walked over to her. He slumped down next door on the couch and let out a deep sign as he sunk into the large cushion.

"What is it?! Danny?! What is it? You look like you're about to puke. Are you okay? Is everything ok?" she immediately asked not giving him a chance to respond to anything before shooting off another question. Her words never made it to his ears. He was replaying Paul's words over and over in his head.

Mindy, beside herself with curiosity and concern, took one hand and placed it on his cheek, as a mother would to a child. She wasn't sure why she was doing this, but she knew that whatever news Danny had just received had him shaken him to his core.

At the touch of Mindy's hand on his face, Danny snapped back to reality. He looked into her eyes. He took her hand into his and slowly let it go. The mixture of emotions that coursed through him made him sick to his stomach. He felt physically ill. He stood, trying to shake the feeling that had settled at the pit of his stomach. He glanced down to Mindy, who was looking at him, her eyes begging for an explanation yet no words ever left her lips.

"Hey, Mindy, I have to go." He managed to say as he started looking for his keys.

"Okay," she said slowly, more out of disappointment that he was not telling her what was going on than in agreement that he should go. "Is Paul okay? Are you ok to drive? Seriously, Danny because you really do look sick. Why don't you sit down again, have something to drink and then head out? Can whatever it is not wait half an hour?" she managed to say calmly. Her mind was racing and she could not quite read Danny's face. She wanted to read his eyes, to know what was going on in that head of his. Nothing, she could not get anything out of him. He was clearly distraught but nothing she could quite understand.

"No, thanks. I have to go. This can wait but I really need to lie down in my bed. Take a few minutes to myself" he attempted a smile. "I am good. Paul is good. _I am always good_…." the words floated out his mouth more on impulse than meaning. He looked down and started fidgeting with his keys. If she insists that I stay, I would love to stay, he thought to himself. I need her for this. He looked back to her.

"Well, then, as long as you are ok. Um, sure." she said. I should force him to stay, she thought. He doesn't look like he should be alone. What the hell is going on? Why won't he tell me?

Danny walked to her door and cracked the door open, his hand resting on the doorknob. He stopped, his body refused to move although his mind was telling him to walk out. Paul's words started replaying again in his head and he wanted to tell Mindy. He wanted her to know.

He put his other hand in his pocket and left one on the door, not sure how he was going to start this conversation. "Christina is pregnant. It could be mine…." It just came out.

Mindy felt a slight pain through her heart which caught her off guard. She stared at him, trying to read his face again. "Wow" she managed to breathe out. "How does Paul know?" she asked but realized the _how_ as soon as the words were spoken. "Oh, yeah, right. He could also be father, right?" She saw Danny's jaw harden then slowly relax.

Without speaking, Danny closed the door and walked towards her couch. He sat down and Mindy followed silently. This will be a weird night, Mindy thought to herself as she sat down next to him.

She looked at his face and how confused he looked, placed one hand in his hand and grabbed the remote with the other. She pressed Play and stared silently at the screen when the opening credits to Cheers began. She will deal with her feelings for Danny later. Tonight, he needs a friend.

TO BE CONTINUED


	3. Chapter 3 - The Day After

**I consider this just a transition to Chapter 4. I wanted to slow the pace down just a tad so we could fit in more solo time between these two lovable characters. Please let me know what you think! This is my first story and would love feedback, even the negative. I consider it constructive criticism. Thank you, come again. :)**

CHAPTER 3

Two full episodes into what Mindy had mentally termed "Beers for Cheers " and Mindy was still holding Danny's hand. They sat almost motionless and watched a young, brown-haired Ted Danson in silence. She occasionally glanced at Danny from the corner of her eye. A part of her wanted to ask him a million questions but the other part of her did not want to know what he was going through. Another part of her desperately needed to use the restroom and heat up more popcorn but instead, she did nothing and continued silently watching Cheers.

Danny in the meanwhile was busy figuring out what he wanted. He had managed early on this evening to keep his mind occupied with what transpired on the television but eventually his mind was full of Christina's pregnancy. Things were over with Christina and there was no way that they could ever work out, but if the baby _was_ his, he knew that he wanted be a huge part of that child's life. He was happy, ecstatic almost, at the thought of having a child, he flinched at the thought of it being with _Christina._ He had almost given up the hope of ever becoming a father after the divorce. He recalled his conversation with Mindy during that brief time he was her gynecologist and how he tried to convince her that it was too late for her to start a family. What he did not tell her at the time was that he had those same fears for himself. Would he never have children? What kind of father would he even be? His biggest fear, he admitted, as ever becoming like his own father if he was ever lucky enough to have a family.

"You know, when I used to picture myself having a baby with Christina, this was not how I imagined it." Danny said softly. His eyes still fixed on the glare of the television screen.

Mindy quickly turned and looked at him wide-eyed. She had assumed that Danny needed her for moral support and not necessarily because Danny felt the need to talk to her. She was fine with that. So, when he did finally speak to her, it shocked her a bit. She stared at him for a moment and responded in classic Mindy style, a bit too energetic and somewhat condescendingly "Tell me about it, Danny! O-M-G! You realize that you might have a Baby Mama on your hands? If the baby is yours, to quote the very wise words of Kim Kardashian's Baby Daddy, 'She got one of your kids, she got you for 18 years '" she said with a look of sympathy. Suddenly realizing something, she looked disgusted, " You have to promise me you won't get other random chicks knocked up? You're an OB, dude. It's not good for our practice image." She continued "Use the rubber or get that stuff taken care of " she jokingly said, using her fingers to simulate scissors cutting through air.

"What?! No. I am not doing that to my genitals." Danny let out a gasp while he shook his head emphatically no. He then allowed himself to smile. "And plus, I would not want to deprive the very fortunate future Mrs. Castellano of bearing my very large and very handsome children." The look said it all. Danny held his gaze at Mindy slightly longer than needed but he just couldn't tear his eyes away from her. She breathlessly smiled back at him, her face masking her embarrassment. She immediately turned back to Ted Danson.

"Whatever, Castel-lamo. I would be surprised if the baby is even yours. Your little swimmers probably retired decades ago." She raised an eyebrow and gave his crotch a one-time glance over. Oh my God, what the hell am I doing? She yelled at herself. Her face turned red and she feigned sudden interest in whatever was going on onscreen and nervously pretended to laugh at a joke.

Danny's mind immediately went to inappropriate scenarios which may or not have involved Mindy, his little swimmers and the buttered popcorn. With his head more pleasantly occupied, he was unable to come up with some witty remark to Mindy's comment. He stared at her with his mouth open waiting for a response which never came. So, the conversation dropped and each looked back to the screen, hoping to ride out the awkward silence that followed.

A full five minutes passed before either one of them stirred. "Hey, Min?" Danny asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

"What's up?" as she shifted her body so that she was sitting with her legs crossed on the couch facing him.

"Thanks for letting me stay here with you tonight." He shrugged his shoulders and shot her a look of appreciation.

"No problem" she responded. _With you_, the words floated in Mindy's ears for what seemed to her like an eternity. Her heart was full and she felt strangely happy given the circumstances. At any other time, she likely would have jumped at the opportunity to ravenously attack him, rocking his world. Not tonight, not like this, she thought.

They were soon absorbed again by the television. Somehow, within the next 20 minutes, they had both managed to move closer to each other. And within the next hour after that, they were both asleep, Mindy's head resting comfortably against Danny's shoulder and his arm protectively around her.

Mindy woke early in the morning, her body finally succumbing to her need to use the restroom. She moved to stretch her arms when suddenly she realized that she was still on the couch with Danny. She looked up at him, moving in tiny increments as to avoid waking him. He looks so peaceful, she thought. She carefully slid out from underneath his arm and stood next to the couch, looking over him. Seeing him asleep there made her heart do that crazy butterfly thing again. She was having a lot of those moments tonight.

She turned off the television and made a mental note of what episode they had last seen before falling asleep, so they could pick up where they left off. She walked as quietly as possible to her closet, grabbing the biggest throw blanket that she could find and kneeling in front of him, laying it across his shoulders and gently tucking it underneath his chin. She giggled when Danny sleepily nuzzled his face into the cushion under his head but continued sleeping. She gazed at him in silence, looking over the contours of his face and noticing how relaxed he appeared. Her eyes moved to his masculine arm showing from underneath a ridiculously pink and fuzzy blanket with the word Princess across the center. She bought it for Riley a few years back but ended up keeping it as a reward to herself for sticking to a diet more than 24 hours. It was her favorite to snuggle with. Here Danny was, wrapped in it like a baby. _Shit_, _the baby_, she remembered. Her face turned cold. Damn you, Danny, she thought as her eyes narrowed in on him and eyebrows furrowed. How can you be a father to _Christina's_ baby?! She will have you wrapped around her little pinky for the rest of your lives. Damn you, Christina for getting pregnant. Damn you for sleeping with Danny and Paul. Damn you for being so damn pretty. Damn you….

"Are you planning on smothering me in my sleep?" Danny laughed as peered at her through only one eye open, rubbing his other one with his hand.

"What?! Who? Where?" she asked, stunned and confused. The shock of Danny being awake and talking to her threw her into complete clumsiness. Dear God, I was standing over him, like a crazed lunatic! This is bad; this is so bad, she repeated to herself. In an effort to distance herself from what he caught her doing, she took a step back and tripped over the coffee table behind her. She came crashing to the floor, butt first.

"Min, are you ok?!" Danny immediately jumped up from the couch to help her. "Are you ok?" He extended his hand down to her and waited when she did not immediately grab it. He waited a few more seconds then started to laugh. "I woke up because I my shoulder was going numb and I had that creepy feeling of being watched. I open my eyes and you're just standing there with your hands tight around this blanket…" He motioned towards the couch. He squinted his eyes incredulously when he caught the full view of the pink blanket which had now fallen halfway to the floor. "What are you, like 10? How do you own such a monstrosity?!"

Mindy looked at him in embarrassment and finally accepted his hand. He pulled her from the floor, shrugged his shoulder and stared questioningly at her until he asked again "What was that about, Min? You had death rays coming out of your eyes." He tried to look serious but another smile was inching across his face. "It's that same look that you get when the vending machine steals your dollar."

"First of all, that damn vending machine has it out for me! How can everyone in the doctor's lounge get their snacks and when it's my turn, it jams? Really? I really need to write a strongly worded note to the hospital. I will do that on Monday, thank you for reminding me." she managed to say as she angrily wiped her butt for any crumbs or dust which may have hitched a ride. "Secondly, there was no death look. I was just making sure you weren't sweating all over my favorite blanket, Danny." He was clearly not buying it. She took a deep breath and started, "Okay, okay, I got lost thinking about Christina and your situation. I know she is your ex and all, and you married her for a reason and she was gracious enough to marry you, and that should speak volumes for her charitable personality…but Danny, what did you see in her?! I am sorry but I have tried, but I just can't figure out how you two were together. She seems manipulative and too intent on making you feel like shit…" She knew that her words did not make much sense but she could not help herself from stopping. She immediately paused when she noticed him staring expressionless at her. "God, I am sorry, Danny. I was just rambling. You know me... you were right, I _was_ trying to smother you with the blanket. You were right…" She felt that she had said too much. Shoot me in the face, she thought.

Another moment passed without any response from Danny when she attempted to change the subject, "So, um, Danny, it's late and you look super uncomfortable on the couch, if you want, you can come up to the bed? Not like you-and-me-getting-it-on bed sharing, definitely in a Mindy-is-the-best-for-letting-me-get-proper-rest-o n-this-comfy-bed" She was already walking towards her bedroom when he spoke after her.

"She was not always like that." He said in a tone that made Mindy stop and walk back to the couch. She sat down, pulled the blanket over her and motioned for him to sit next to her. He sunk into the corner of the couch and rested his head back against the cushion. She pulled the edge of the blanket and offered it to him so that they could share. He took it and delicately pulled it over his lap, making sure he did not steal any of Mindy's. Once they were sufficiently comfortable, he continued his conversation about Christina "When I first met Christina, she loved life and her energy drew me in. In the beginning, things were great. Yeah, we had our moments, but what relationship doesn't, right?" he paused to look over to a very curious Mindy and resumed once she hurriedly shook her head in agreement "… she started off as a great wife but my absence from the long hours at work affected her. She hated that I was pursuing my dream and she began saying that she was jealous of my career. At first, I really didn't even know something was wrong. I should have known something was up. She would purposely make plans on days that I had off from work and then she eventually began the photography stuff. That was basically the end of us seeing each other at all…" he effortlessly stood up and placed his hands in his pockets and began pacing the space behind the couch, causing Mindy to adjust her body so that she could face him.

When Mindy faced him, he said "I can't say for sure that I ever really loved her. I had this stupid idea of what a Castellano family should look like and then I tried to create this ideal husband-wife thing around what we had" Danny shook his head at the idea and continued pacing. Mindy nodded in agreement to urge him to continue. "So, when Christina cheated, it was like the family that I had built up in my head was gone and it hurt like hell. Min, just imagine the person that you choose to share your life with reaching in and grabbing your heart, ripping it out and shredding it to pieces in front of you." He looked at Mindy again with a pained expression. He took a deep breath and kept on, "Honestly, I think we didn't make it because neither one of us cared enough. It wasn't just the cheating, it was everything. I think we knew we were done before it ever got to that but I refused to accept it was over. Neither one of us wanted to be the _reason_ things ended.."

Mindy was speechless. She had never known Danny to speak about his emotions before. Well, not this way at least. He was more than happy to share his opinions when he opposed certain things or to try to dissuade people from doing what he thought was dumb, but _this?_ This side of Danny was uncharted territory, for both.

"Then why did you try it again?" she quietly asked without thinking but kept her eyes focused on his face. "If that is how the marriage ended, why would you try again with her? Why now?" her eyes softened.

Danny quickly averted meeting her stare and considered how to respond. How do I tell her that it was the only choice that I had? How do I tell her that her relationship with Casey was moving so fast and it seemed the best thing to keep myself occupied? Either I tried it with Christina again or I sat by and watched her completely happy with Pastor Casey? "I finally forgave her for cheating. I thought I was ready, ok?," Danny whispered defensively. He took his hands out of his pockets and glanced at his phone to distract her and bide more time to either elaborate or change the subject altogether. Instead, he panicked. "Well, it's 3 a.m. I guess I will head home" he casually said, looking at Mindy with his face clearly showing indecision. He _was_ tired, though. Not physically at least but mentally.

"Hey, wait!" She jumped up from the couch and walked over to him, "No, stay. You can sleep on the couch, I have some extra blankets" Mindy said while gesturing to the closet. "Some blankets that are not pink or fuzzy" she huffed and rolled her eyes when he raised his eyebrow, "Ok, maybe _not_. I do have a few blankets from the hospital, which I did not steal." she puckered her lips the way she always did when she was lying, making him grin at her. She continued "Oh, come on, Danny. Stay." She surprised herself when her words came out almost pleading. "You don't have to talk anymore if you don't want. Or you can if that's what you want…but it's late and there's no reason for you to leave. I am not kicking you out." She finished and looked at his eyes, waiting for him to respond.

He sighed and looked down at his phone again. "Thanks, really. But I will head home. I need to call Paul anyways."

"It's 3 in the morning, I doubt he is awake" she said questioningly.

"He doesn't sleep until 4. Don't ask, something about the natural rotation of the sun and moon and crap." shaking his head at the absurdity of it.

"Yeah, well, if you get home and talk to Paul and still feel like you want to come over, just come…" she said. She shuffled towards him and awkwardly pulled him into a hug. She felt him tense but then relax into her. He smells like a man, she thought. A _man's_ man. She would never tell him that, though.

He was the first to pull away and began rubbing the back of his neck as Mindy noticed that his forehead was beginning to sweat. Nervously, he began, "Thanks but don't worry about me. I am fine. Hey, maybe we can finish watching that Cheers stuff next Friday night? You are on call on next Saturday and I am on Wednesday so Friday will be good." he said mentally checking each of their schedules as he picked up his keys.

"Yeah, sure..." she paused briefly before raising her eyebrow and playfully questioning him "Should I be worried that you know my schedule so well? You're not stalking me, are you?" The past several minutes had been so intense, it was a welcomed relief to fall back into some gaiety, she thought.

"Stop it, Lahiri. Don't pretend that you don't know my schedule either. By the way, it's me who should worry! I was the one being smothered by some crazy woman while she hovered over my sleeping body! For all I know you were trying to act on your desires of having your way with me" he accused.

"Um, no. I was not smothering you. I was lost in thought, there is a difference. As for me wanting your _aging_ body, no, gross!" she rambled without a breath "And your schedule?! I barely know mine, how the hell do you expect me to know yours, too?" she put one hand on her hip and began waving her finger in front of him.

There she goes, he thought. He knew exactly what to say to make her go off in a rant. He prided himself in getting her so worked up. They fed off of each others energy when she started like this. Right now, he wanted this for selfish reasons of course. A worked up Mindy was always easier to deal with than a Mindy who was asking questions about Christina and feelings.

"...and if you're so good at remembering dates and whatnot, remember this, Danny boy: Friday night, my place, 8pm. Bring ice cream! The good kind, Danny, not that cheap crap that you brought last time. I will not mind if you insist on picking up Chinese!" she finally stopped and demanded a response.

"Whoa, wait. I said watch videos, who said anything about ice cream and Chinese?!"

"My house. My rules."

"Fine, whatever. Just keep your eyes off of my junk next time. It makes me uncomfortable." he said as he slipped out of her apartment. He slyly stole a glance back to her after he was halfway down the hall. Noticing that she was still standing at her door looking after him, he smiled and winked to her. He closed his eyes once the elevator doors shut in front of him remembering how Mindy looked shocked when he called her out on looking at his junk. He loved catching her off guard. He felt a little flutter of happiness which almost immediately faded. His eyes instantly opened as he stared nervously into his future. Life had just thrown him a curve ball and it was up to him to swing or not.

Mindy smiled to herself as she shut the door. Danny totally caught her looking at his junk earlier. She put her hand to head and walked into the apartment. What a night! She enthusiastically thought.

She lazily moved to her bed and let herself fall into the warmth of her familiar blankets and pillows. She closed her eyes and reflected on the crazy night that had just transpired. The current serenity of her mind was then assaulted by Cristina's face and she suddenly felt the urge to cry. The past few hours of her life caught up to her in a rush of emotions. She grabbed her pillow and plunged her face into it and began sobbing. What a night...

TO BE CONTINUED


	4. Chapter 4 - Breakfast No Bueno

CHAPTER 4

Sunday morning and Mindy woke wrapped in her favorite pink and fuzzy blanket and with a splitting headache. She opened her eyes and struggled to recall why she felt so sluggish. Sweet mother of Jimmy Choo, last night was not a dream! she thought as she rolled over to her side, cradling the fluffy pillow beneath her mangled mess of hair. The headache? Just a side effect of having cried herself to sleep.

She wanted to curl into a ball and fall asleep again, hoping that next time that she woke, this reality would be a dream. She lazily squirmed around her bed, swimming through the endless amount of pillows around her as she glanced over at her clock. 6:48 a.m. What the hell? I could use another hour or two of beauty rest today, I need it!

She was snuggling into the warmth of her blanket when her cell phone rang. Danny's face was lighting up her screen. She remembered taking that picture during their Santa Fe trip. He was driving her to meet Josh and she was complaining that she did not have a picture of him saved with his Contact Info. He tried putting up his hands so that the photo would be blocked but she managed to snap it in the perfect moment. Mindy loved that picture of him, the way that the sun kissed his skin just right, the way his eyes squinted at her and that lopsided smile of his. He looked annoyed, but happy. Oh, Danny, she sighed as she swiped her phone and pressed the speaker button, she was too tired to even hold the phone up to her ear.

"Hey, Min, you up yet?" he asked a little too eagerly.

"What?! No, Danny. It's not even 7 yet and I am about to sleep another 2... or 5 hours. A woman wants her beauty rest, damn it. Do not judge me!" she sounded combative and Danny loved it.

"Mindy, if that is the case, you need more than just a few hours. I would stay in all day, if I were you. You were looking pretty rough last night. I didn't want to mention anything, but…"

"Damn it, I am genetically youthful. My skin glows, Danny! I do not _need_ beauty sleep! I could stay awake for 4 days straight and look fully rested." she was already out of bed and gathering her things to jump in the shower.

Reverse psychology works every time, Danny thought. "Well, since you're getting up anyways, want to come with me to meet up with Paul and Christina?"

"Oh my God! You're meeting with them today!? When, where, what are you wearing?..." this is too much for me this morning, she thought as she squinted her eyes, her headache was pulsating again. She placed her hand to the front of her head and began rubbing it.

"Well, I am meeting them at Itza Café at 8:30 for a late breakfast. I think Paul wants to meet in public so I don't kick his butt. He obviously doesn't know me that well. A Castellano will still punch you in the face, even if there are hundreds of people around. Just ask that punk at the Springsteen show" he chuckled.

"How do I always get sucked into that Springsteen concert story? You punched a little kid in the face. Get over it, dude. Not only is that story old, but it makes me kind of hate you for beating up a little kid, Danny" she was now in her closet trying to find a blouse to wear. "Anyways…about breakfast? What should I wear? Something that says 'I'm street and ain't afraid to kick yo ass' or 'let's talk about this like adults'?" she asked, mentally picking something out for either scenario.

"I don't know what that means but just wear something normal, Min. It's breakfast, not the opera. So, nothing glittery or tacky" he wished he hadn't said the word _tacky_. It was usually followed by her nitpicking his entire wardrobe.

"Okay. I will try my best to tone my sexiness down. I will not guarantee anything." She bit her tongue. She could have gone off on him about his own fashion sense, but this was not the moment. She needed to get dressed ASAP.

One hour later, Danny knocked on Mindy's apartment door. They never agreed on how they would get to the café, but it seemed only natural for him to pick her up. How has it only been a few hours since I left this place? And why do I feel so nervous? And they _really_ need to do something about the heat always being on in this place! There is no reason for the heat to be up this high! He angrily thought to himself as he waited for Mindy.

She was in the restroom when she heard him knocking at the front door. Her headache was slightly better but she had been stress barfing for the past half hour. Not today, Mindy, not today. Keep it together! If anything, you need to keep it together so he won't back out of taking you along...By the way, why _did_ he ask me to come along?

She walked out to the living room and opened the door. There he was, looking absolutely handsome in a plain black t-shirt and jeans. She grinned as he looked her up and down at her outfit. She had opted to wear a simple black shirt, with rhinestones forming a small heart above her left breast and jeans that fit her just right. "Great minds think alike" she said as she motioned for him to come in. "Just wait a second while I grab my pepper spray. It's not Paul I'm worried about but Christina…wait, should I take my policeman's club, too? I bought one on Ebay after that creepy guy moved down the hall…"

Danny interrupted, "No, Mindy. This will be an adult conversation. I don't even want know what other weapons you keep in this apartment." He stepped past her into the apartment and glanced around.

"The gun you know about… Oh, crap…no…" she managed to say before she ran towards the restroom. "Oh, God.." she groaned from inside.

"Stress barfing? Seriously? How are _you_ the one barfing?! I am the one whose life is changing! Are you kidding me?!" He yelled from the living room, annoyed but yet strangely softened at this gesture of her stressing about his life. He was also extremely relieved that she did not bother to ask him why he invited her to this very important meeting. He was not really sure himself.

In the restroom, Mindy gagged repeatedly. When will this ever end?! she thought as the little amount of food that she had managed to eat earlier made its way back out. Once she felt better, she hurriedly brushed her teeth, making sure that her hair was impeccable and walked out of the restroom.

"Are you ok?" Danny asked as she came out, truly worried.

"Yeah, I feel better now. Let me just take something for the nausea. I don't want that to happen again while we are there…"

"So, exactly when were you planning on beating Christina with that club? In between barfs?" He shot her a crooked smile.

She rolled her eyes at him, walked over to her kitchen and began looking on her counter for the medicine. She feverishly looked for several minutes before finding the small, white bottle and popped some pills in her mouth. She threw the bottle into her purse and smiled at him, letting him know that she was ready.

"You keep medicine in the kitchen?" He asked as they left the apartment.

They pulled into the café at exactly 8:21.

Mindy walked side by side with Danny as they approached the corner of the restaurant. The aroma of the freshly made bread made Mindy's stomach growl, between the barfing and her having almost nothing to eat in the last several hours, the scent was intoxicating. I could totally go for a bagel, or maybe even a muffin, I wonder if they have blueberry…. Her thoughts were immediately cut short at the sight of Christina and Paul standing in line waiting for a table. The sight of them was not surprising, what _was_ surprising was the gentle kiss which Christina was giving Paul on his lips. Christina is kissing Paul! Mindy's head screamed. Mindy immediately looked at Danny. He had seen it, too. Danny's face went from relaxed to shocked and angry. He unconsciously reached for Mindy's hand.

They continued their slow pace until they reached the other couple. "So, you guys are like a thing now?" Danny sharply asked in a tone that would have scared little kids.

Paul immediately backed away from Christina and shot Danny a look of guilt. Christina, however, smiled coyly at Danny and slightly raised her eyebrow. "So, _you_ guys are like a thing, now?" Christina retorted, her eyes darting between Danny and Mindy and down to their entwined hands. Her voice was calm but cut sharply through the tension.

The question caught Danny briefly off guard. "No, I asked Mindy to come with me so that I wouldn't do something stupid" his jaw locked and he looked over to Mindy, who adamantly shook her head in disagreement to Christina's accusation. He gripped her hand even tighter.

"Whatever, I don't care what you two do. I just hope she knows that she'll be disappointed when it comes to..." Christina paused and glared at Mindy.

Before she could finish, Paul stepped forward, placing himself in between Christina and Danny. "Hey, Danny. How have you been?" his inquiry was genuine. They might have ended on wrong terms, but Danny and Paul shared a very unique bond. They had become friends while Mindy was in Haiti and Danny knew he somehow blamed Paul for sitting in the office which only a few weeks earlier, had sat the woman who confused the hell out of him. If Paul had not been hired as Mindy's _replacement_, they would have been very close friends.

"Doing ok, Paul. How about yourself?" Danny curtly asked, extending his hand. Danny had long ago forgiven Paul for having sex with Christina. The anger had almost completely changed to thankfulness. He thanked Paul for giving him an absolute reason to let Christina go, definitively. Before the hook-up, there was that doubt that always lingered in Danny's head of whether or not they would ever try to be a couple again. Now, he knew that Christina was _not_ for him.

Christina spoke as the men shook hands feverishly, "Well, I asked for a table for 3 as I didn't know you were bringing a lady friend, Danny. I need to let them know to add a chair to the table" She walked towards the front of the café, leaving the remaining three waiting and staring after her.

Paul fidgeted with his phone and looked Mindy over, "Mindy, hey. Your hair looks really good. It's growing out and you look great. Pastor Casey is one lucky fellow. How is he?"

Mindy tried her best to keep calm. Paul had always managed to get under her skin. She never liked him and the fact that he tried to oust her from the practice sealed his 'enemy status' for life. "If you must know, Casey and I broke up. But you are right, this hair length does make me look great." She pursed her lips to show her cheekbones.

"Oh. I am sorry to hear that, but at least that gives you two a shot, right?" Paul asked innocently. Danny and Mindy immediately looked at each other.

"We're not here to talk about us," Mindy pointed her finger between Danny and herself describing the 'us'… "or the lack of us, in this case'" Mindy shot back at Paul. "We are here to talk about the _sex_ that you both were having with that lady!" pointing towards Christina as she made her way back to them. Damn it, how is she pregnant and look that sexy? Mindy angrily thought to herself.

Christina stopped next to Paul and gave him a quick peck on his lips and Paul wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Danny grunted, rolled his eyes and looked away.

"So, here's the deal. I am four and a half months pregnant and that brings me to the following: the baby is either yours, Danny or Paul's. I hope to God that it's Paul's." Christina said with a sharp look to Danny.

"Just like that? _That_ is how we are discussing this? Why didn't I hear this from you sooner? Why did you have your playboy here tell me?" Danny was furious.

"Wait, stop there. I didn't have _anyone_ do _anything_ for me. Paul has known for the past month and I begged him not to tell you. It's none of your business if I'm pregnant or not. You and I are over."

"None of my business?!" Danny practically yelled at her. "You might have my child and it's none of my business?!"

"You said it! _MIGHT._ It might not be yours"

Before Danny could respond, the hostess appeared and ushered them to their table. Christina led the way followed by a nervous Paul. Danny placed his hands on the small of Mindy's back and guided her through the maze of chairs and tables until they reached their spot.

Danny pulled Mindy's chair out for her to sit and slid her in. This was not lost on Christina, she quickly looked over at Mindy and her catlike eyes narrowed in on her. "So, Mindy, your pastor boyfriend finally broke off the engagement? Can't say that I blame him, no offense but you should have seen that coming" she said.

Mindy had just sat down and was adjusting her silverware when Christina's words slapped her in the face. "Wait, what?!" she said, surprised. She quickly recovered. Christina, you don't know me. I can be a bigger bitch than you, Mindy thought. "Oh, Christina. I think you forgot why we are here. Not to get caught up on my love life as exciting as that is. We are here because you decided to screw Paul here to get back at Danny for breaking up with you. Remember?" Mindy smiled the most insincere smile that she could muster. "So, let's try not to change the subject and get back to the issue. Obviously, you two" glancing between Paul and Christina "are a couple now or are just having amazing sex, who knows, your hormones are all out of wack. Whatever, there is a baby on the way and you guys need to figure out how you're going to handle the paternity issue between now and the time that the baby comes. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to step to the lady's room." Mindy stood up, grabbed her purse and walked away as dramatically as she could. Take that! She thought as she rushed to the restroom to puke.

She was surprised to hear a male voice inside the restroom with her within two minutes of having run in. "Mindy, how are you holding up?" Danny slowly asked.

"I don't know if you caught a glimpse of the door, Danny boy…but this is a woman's bathroom. You're not supposed to be in here!" she grumbled from inside her bathroom stall.

"You're not supposed to be in there either, Min" he said. "I am sorry for dragging you here. You should not to be stress barfing because of all of this. I should have done this on my own, like a man. Instead, I ask you to come along..." he said as he lightly struck his forehead against the stall in which Mindy was in, "I am sorry, Min. For what it's worth, you made Christina shut up." he managed to laugh.

Mindy flushed the toilet, pulled her hair back and opened the stall door to meet him. "You don't need to apologize, dude. If it were not for me, you probably would have attacked Paul when you saw them kissing. Then I would have had to bail you out of jail and that would have just wasted my morning. So, let's just say I'm doing this to avoid having to spend time in jail…again" she non-nonchalantly said before she took her mouthwash out of her purse, walked past Danny and began gurgling at the sink. "I think that's what Christina was going for. She really knows how to push your buttons." she said as she was wiping her mouth dry with a cloth towel.

Danny stood behind Mindy, deciding whether or not he should suggest that they leave. "Yeah, she does know how to press my buttons. She is really good at it. You are the only other woman who knows how to mess with my head so much" Danny had said the words without thinking them through.

"But, I don't sleep with your friends and get knocked up to make you jealous" Mindy quipped in return.

"So, you didn't sleep with Jeremy? And what about the enemy of the practice? Deslaurier! You're not good at proving your point, Min" he said while giving her a questioning look.

"Well, shoot me in the face, Danny. A woman has needs! And there's a difference, I was not with them _just_ to make you jealous, Danny, so that's a moot point. Christina did it on purpose!" She tried to defend herself but felt the conversation going nowhere, "Anyway, why are you in here? You need to be out _there_ discussing that baby!" she gently pushed him towards the door.

"That's it. I don't know what there is to discuss. I don't know why I even came here. We won't know if the baby is mine until after he or she is born. I'm not going to make Christina go through a paternity test while she's still pregnant. We all know that's too risky. This is something that has to wait and I am just in limbo for the next couple months." He said, more or less thinking out loud. A peaceful look washed over his face as he looked over at Mindy "Do you think I should ask to go to her appointments?"

He is looking forward to this, Mindy thought. The look on Danny's face glowed warmth and joyful expectation. He will be a good father. She grabbed his hand and squeezed. "Well, let's go ask." She said as she headed towards the door with Danny behind her. "Wait," she stopped "I need to brush my teeth, the mouthwash wasn't enough. I have this taste in my mouth…it tastes like what I imagine Madonna's career tastes like. It's sour and …"

"On that note, I will wait outside the door for you to become acquainted with Madonna's career" he said as he hastily slipped out of the restroom.

She placed her purse on the counter and rummaged for her toothbrush. She found it and instead of immediately brushing her teeth, she grabbed her phone and pulled up Danny's photo. Damn you, Danny.. she thought. You _are_ a good catch, why did you get caught by that evil woman? She remembered Christina's eyes that had narrowed in on her just a moment ago. I am happy that I came, though, stress barfs and all. Danny needed someone on his side. Mindy had managed to upset Christina and even though it was a small victory, it was a victory over Christina nonetheless. She smiled as she looked at Danny's photo again on her phone.

The door suddenly opened and the man whose picture she had just been smiling at was standing two feet from her with a look of confusion.

"Ahhh, Danny!" she said, her immediate reaction was to flinch and jump back. "You scared me!" she punched him in the arm but continued, "Um, I was about to call you…I can't find my toothbrush" the words not making sense as she spoke them.

He looked down at her phone, saw his photo and nodded in agreement. He then looked at her other hand and looked at Mindy. "Are you high? Did that nausea medicine get to you? You need to eat, Min. You have the toothbrush in your hand, you know that, right?" he questioned, as he pointed to the toothbrush.

"Do I? I am such a blonde at times, aren't I?" She relaxed a little but in her embarrassment, continued rambling, "How would I look as a blonde? I think I could totally rock the blonde hair, what do you think, Danny?" she began creating a box for her face with her hands, in a very 'vogue' like fashion. God, he thinks I'm an idiot, he totally caught me gawking at his picture on my phone, she kept mentally repeating to herself as she continued to make facial poses and boxes around her face.

"Seriously, what is with you and Madonna?"

"Just answer the question, Danny, I would totally rock the blonde hair. You know I would. Why did you come back in here by the way? Were you trying to sneak a peek at my ass as I leaned down to brush my teeth? You totally were, weren't you? I can't hate you for that. These jeans are amazing to my bum…" she said feeling more confident and turning so he could appreciate her figure.

"No, wait, what? No. I wasn't…" he couldn't stop staring at her butt. Mindy just smiled in return, a flirtatious smile. He barely recovered, "I just wanted to know if you wanted me to order something for you while you finished barfing" he said.

The truth was that he had come back on impulse, not for anything in particular. He had come in, wanting to walk up to her and pull her into a hug. To let her know that he appreciated her being there for him, for everything, and well, for just being Mindy. Instead, he was faced with a barrage of outlandish questions that made him confused as to why he was standing in front of her, in a woman's restroom.

"You are ridiculous, I'll wait for you outside." he grumbled in confusion as he walked out.

They were both flustered, one as much as the other hoping that the other did not catch on how ridiculous their excuses were. Mindy felt ridiculous for being caught awkwardly gawking at Danny's photo on her phone and Danny felt embarrassed for walking back into that restroom without a _good_ excuse.

Mindy hurriedly brushed her teeth and met Danny outside of the restroom door. They walked sheepishly towards a canoodling Christina and Paul sitting at the table. Danny immediately began speaking as he reached the table, "Well, I don't think there's much to discuss here. I don't expect you to do any tests that would affect the baby and I guess we will just have to wait to find out whose it is," Danny said to Christina, his hands nervously shoved in his pockets while his eyes wandered around the café. As if suddenly remembering something, he quickly turned and looked at Christina, "I would like to go to the appointments, just in case it is mine." he added sternly.

She made a few inaudible sounds and rolled her eyes. Mindy joined in with Danny, staring down at Christina.

"Sure, I will let you know when my next appointment is." she said after several moments, narrowing her eyes at him. Danny nodded in response and looked to Mindy, who was nodding her head back to him, an unspoken agreement that they were leaving.

Paul stood up to shake Danny's hand and give Mindy a hug. Once the awkward goodbyes were over, Danny and Mindy hurried out before Christina could change her mind.

Danny and Mindy sat in silence during the ride back to her apartment. As he pulled up to her building, he looked over to Mindy with his crooked smile across his lips, "Thanks for coming, you know, instead of sleeping in and catching up on your much needed beauty rest."

"_Not_ needed. I will have you know that I once entered a 'No Sleep Til Brooklyn' contest in college. I went 72 hours without a wink of sleep. The day after, I went to my friends' wedding and I still consider those the best pictures ever taken of me. I was glowing, Danny. I must say it's one of my greatest achievements." she proudly said as they both stepped out of the car.

"What was the prize? Let me guess, concert tickets to New Kids in the Hood?"

"Oh, wow, Danny. Do you even try? That would be New Kids _on the Block_, the greatest boy band to ever walk the face of the earth. But unfortunately, no, the prize was for unlimited internet access at the school library, day or night. I really needed that extra time to get all of my classwork done. But alas, I didn't win so I had to fend for myself like everyone else in school. Some lame-o meth head won and never once used the library time. I think he is in Congress now..." she said quietly reflecting on her college days.

"You never cease to amaze me, Lahiri." he said, looking over to her with a look of adoration. He quickly followed with "So, you're going to sleep as soon as you get up there, huh?" he joked, pointing up to her apartment.

"Yeah, actually I have had this headache all morning so, yeah, I will take a quick nap." She said, rubbing her forehead again.

"Have you taken anything for that? I could go pick up some over the counter stuff at the corner drugstore and what about breakfast? We didn't actually eat this morning, so I owe you some grub..."

"No, it's fine. I already took some Motrin and that usually helps. As for breakfast, I will take a rain check. I bought Rocky Road on Friday which is still sitting in my freezer. I may or not devour that. We can try breakfast next week, there's this new bistro by the office."

They said their goodbyes and Mindy went up to her apartment. She sprawled onto her bed and contemplated about the so-called breakfast meeting. Leave it to Christina to start such a delicate conversation like the paternity of her child in such a way! And what is up with her and Paul? Are they really a thing now? Gross. I don't like Paul, but come on?! He can do so much better, she mused as she laid face up on her bed, her arms stretched out to her sides. If it's Paul's baby, that will be one cute baby!, she thought as she closed her eyes and imagined what a Paul-Christina baby would look like. Without wanting to, she then pondered what a Danny-Christina would look like. Nope... A Danny-Christina baby would definitely not be as cute as a Danny-Mindy baby. She yawned as sleep was quickly replacing her desire to eat or take anything for her headache. She allowed herself to elaborate on her vision of a Danny-Mindy baby as she drifted into a deep sleep.

Danny left Mindy's apartment and stopped at the corner drug store. He perused the aisles of over-the-counter medicines until he found the few items that he wanted. He lazily made his way through the store and stopped at the greeting card section and began reading through the choices of cards, not with any recipient in mind. He read through the 'Birthday Funny' section, the singing cards section and eventually got to the "Thinking of You" cards. His mind wandered to Mindy and picked up a yellow card with the words Just Because on the front. He could not help but smile as he paid for his items and left the store.

TO BE CONTINUED


	5. Chapter 5 - The Box

CHAPTER 5

Mindy, dressed to perfection as usual, strolled into the office and instantly looked for signs of Danny. This had unconsciously become part of her daily routine. On most days, she would be rewarded by seeing him standing at Betsy's desk shuffling through paperwork or hassling the staff about one thing or another. She felt disappointed when he was not standing there this morning. She had to make that extra effort, to actually _look_ for him. She glanced towards his door and mentally huffed when she saw that it was closed. Well, at least he is here, she thought once she was able to discern a small amount of light peering from underneath his door. He is such a workaholic, why would he _not_ be at work?, Mindy thought as she casually looked at the clock on the wall: 9:17 am. Oops, late again! My bad.

She hesitantly made a stop at the front desk area to mingle with the staff and to pick up some patient charts. She usually looked forward to this part of her Monday morning where she could get the juicy office gossip and thoroughly detail her own amorous adventures that she had lived over the weekend. Today was definitely different. This weekend had been reality overload and she did not quite feel ready to face her co-workers. Her weekend had been from hell; from the horror of being stood up, to realizing that she wanted to jump Danny's bones (repeatedly), to finding out that Christina was pregnant with possibly Danny's baby. Everything seemed surreal to her now, with the shock of everything having faded away into a fresh memory. Still, there was something akin to foreboding that she felt as she waltzed into her familiar surroundings. Mindy took a deep breath and tried to feel as relaxed and normal as possible. She had to fight her gut instinct, which was to run and hide in her office until the end of the day.

She barely heard Morgan's rundown of his weekend, her attention gravitating towards the closed-door to her right. "…and then my grandmother kicked her out of the house but let the goat stay, which was definitely fair." Morgan finished. He turned his attention to Mindy, who had been a little too silent during his long and dramatic re-enactment of his weekend, "Hey, Dr. L – are you okay? You kind of have that look on your face, like the one from last week when you ate Betsy's lunch and didn't want anyone to find out... Wait!" Morgan proclaimed as he ran towards her and sniffed the air, his nose centimeters from her face, "You have a secret! - I can smell it on you! You smell of deceit" He gave her a knowing look as Mindy vehemently shook her head in denial. "Yep, you reek of secrecy! Spill the beans! And not Betsy's beans, we don't _ever_ want you to spill those!" he shook his head and pinched his nose.

Betsy overhead and protested, "Dr. L – that was _you_ who ate my lunch last week?! You should have asked, I _would_ have shared. That was my aunt Ginger's special chili… It was good though, wasn't it? I bought a week's worth of it from her for only $50!" Betsy said with a wide smile, she was proud of herself for such a great deal.

"Morgan, no, I do _not_ have a secret! Absolutely nothing happened this weekend that I would need to hide from you or anyone in this office. Nope, nothing..nothing, whatsoever..." She bit her lip while she glanced around the room and looked to the floor, to her nails, to the desk, pretty much everywhere but at Morgan. She then turned to Betsy remembering the chili, "Betsy, only $50?! Seriously, can you hook me up? It was amazing! I had diarrhea all afternoon, but that stuff was worth it! I need to lose a few pounds, anyways..."

Morgan continued to sniff around Mindy. "Dr. L – I am a fox hound when it comes to this and you are a terrible liar! I can see you starting to sweat." he said placing his pointer finger to her forehead and slowly running it across, "You know something!" he said eying the room suspiciously. "Dr. Reed scheduled the liposuction, didn't he? I knew it!" pumping his hand in the air in victory, "I told him about my friend, Fabreezio. He _was_ a doctor before coming to the states and does amazing work, except that time when he accidentally took out..."

Mindy needed to get away from Morgan. She darted towards her office and quickly shut the door behind her before he could finish his story. If I can just stay in here all day and not see anyone, I'll be fine! she thought as she leaned her head and back against an inner wall. She could hear Morgan yelling at her through the door.

She was planning possible emergency escape routes when she noticed a medium-sized box on her desk. She leisurely walked towards it to get a closer look, running her fingers along the top of the fancy gift box. It was light blue about the size of a large handbag. She looked around the room suspiciously, almost expecting someone to pop out from under her desk with a knife. She grabbed her stapler as a weapon and peered under her desk. No one, hmmm, she thought as she placed the stapler in its place. Who could have left this for me? Oh, I know! It's that cute guy I bumped into in the elevator last week... or maybe that girl who asked for my number at the bookstore! Wait, no, they should _not_ have my work address. Damn it, Morgan! she thought as she picked up the box and placed her hand on her door handle and pulled. "Morgan, please stop leaving me inappropriate love trinkets in my office. I have told you before, although I_ will_ keep whatever this is, it's inappropriate and it needs to stop!" she yelled across to him, while awkwardly raising the box with one hand.

Morgan moved closer to inspect the box and looked at her in bewilderment. "Dr. L - I have three amazing gifts still sitting at home for you mainly because they're too heavy to bring in. _That_ is definitely not one of them. That was on your desk when I came in this morning. What is it?" he asked.

Mindy had to stop him from grabbing it out of her hand. "Seriously, Morgan?! Stop it. Whatever those three gifts are at your house, leave them there...unless they include chocolate, free magazine subscriptions or those blue leggings that you know that I have been dying to get my hands on..." Mindy angrily uttered before retreating back into her office.

"Hmmm…let's see what this is", she said out loud as she placed the box on her desk and smiled in wonder. She delicately pulled the top lid upwards and she scanned each item neatly organized within. She cautiously picked one object up at a time and placed it tidily on her desk: a small white bottle which she instantly recognized was for her nausea, pain relievers, headache relief, eye drops, an assortment of her favorite snacks _and_ a pink key chain shaped in form of an M. She knew who the mastermind was behind this amazing box of wonders immediately. As if on cue, and if she had any remaining doubt, the last thing that she pulled out cleared it all up. She picked up a pastel yellow greeting card which read '_Just Because_' in beautiful soft pink letters. She gently opened the cover and began poring over the words –

_"Just because I want your stomach and head to feel better. Just because I want you to get some food in between your stress barfs (but mainly so you don't get into a wrestling match with the vending machine). Just because I am grateful that you are my friend (even though I never asked to be). Just Because, Min. Just because… Love, Danny."_

She ran her fingers over the hand written note, her heart skipping a beat as she lingered over 'Love, Danny'. Her heart once again felt full and she could not remember the last time that someone had made her feel so special. Her eyes could no longer contain the amount of emotion which was coursing through her and a single tear rolled down her cheek. What the hell? Crying again?! she thought as she tried to hold the tears back and began waving her hands frantically in front of her face.

She barely had time to wipe her eyes dry and attempt to compose herself when she received an interoffice call. "Dr. L – Will it be okay if I put one of Dr. C's patients on your schedule tomorrow at 1? Dr. Reed is booked and this is the last patient that I have to reschedule."

"Sure, Bets. Why are you rescheduling Danny's patients?" she asked slowly, not wanting to seem too interested in Danny's affairs.

"He is leaving early tomorrow. Oh yeah, you missed half of our morning gossip meeting. Well, get this, _Christina_ called the office first thing this morning and told me to clear Dr. C's calendar after 1 p.m. and then wanted to speak to him. He's been locked in his office since. I hope they're not getting back together, Dr. L. She gives me the goose bumps. It's not normal for a person to always smell like chlorine!" Betsy said in a hushed voice.

"Oh, Christina called? Danny has been in his office since?" Mindy thoughtfully repeated the bits of conversation that were important to her.

"So, is it okay if I schedule Mrs. Baskill for you at 1pm?"

"That's fine, Bets. Danny might as well owe me another pint of ice cream."

Mindy quickly ended the call. She organized everything back to its place within the gift box, all except two things. She took the key chain and hooked it to her keys. Now, she could always think of Danny as she left her apartment and came home to it, she smiled. She took out the card and desperately wanted to put it on display on her desk but felt that the card was too intimate for other eyes to read. She felt the need to keep it somewhere safe so she slid it into the inside pocket of her large, bright yellow purse. With everything else arranged neatly into the box, she slid it and the remaining items under her desk, hoping that any wondering eyes of her staff would look over it.

She nervously stood in front of Danny's door for a few moments, gathering the courage to knock. Maybe I should just wait for him to come out, it's not_ that_ important, she thought as she hesitantly turned towards her office. She remembered Danny's note and decided to go for it. She formed a fist and barely made contact with the door. "Morgan, seriously quit asking me about lunch, it's not even 10 am! I refuse to go to that questionable hot dog stand that Mindy seems to love. Stop throwing your money away on that crap!" he shouted. Mindy took this as an invitation and turned the handle. She popped her head in and saw him laying face up on the floor throwing a stress ball into the air and catching it. He quickly sat up at the sight of Mindy.

Danny was not ready for this now. This morning, he had purposely arrived early so that no one would see him dropping off Mindy's gift. He confidently placed it on her desk and walked back to his office but almost immediately wimped out. In fact, he had gone back three times before finally leaving it. He considered taking it back a _fourth_ time when he received a phone call from Christina. He was soon absorbed by thoughts of the pregnancy, the baby and the looming OB appointment. He had laid on his floor and had eventually begun throwing his stress ball to keep his mind occupied. The time had passed and he had completely forgotten to go back for Mindy's gift box. Here she was, reminding him of it.

Danny held his breath, attempted a smile and braced himself. For what? He didn't know. For Pandora's box to open? For Mindy to give the gift back? For...who knows? That rush of courage that he felt yesterday when he decided to randomly give Mindy that gift box was gone. In its place was nervousness and regret? No, he could never regret spending an hour writing and rewriting that note to her, he could never regret thinking of her when he rushed to the drugstore yesterday after the failed breakfast meeting. Definitely not regret. He wanted to hide under a rock to avoid this conversation with Mindy. She would ask about his feelings and why he wanted to give her a gift. He quietly inhaled the room air again and waited.

Mindy suddenly felt giddy as she stepped into Danny's office and closed the door behind her. Looking down at him she immediately began, "First off, you should totally take Morgan on his offer! Those hot dogs you are complaining about are _amazing_! Don't hate, they are great. Oh, I just rhymed! Mad rappin' skills must run in the family..." she jokingly said and then stopped when Danny raised his eyebrow, "Whatever, hater. The beat lives on inside of me. Secondly, I need to file an oral _and_ written complaint to the 'Complain to Danny Department' because I do _not_ like getting unsolicited bribes. You do not need to shower me with gifts to keep my mouth shut about Christina. Leave the bribes for when I catch you stealing hospital blankets."She playfully kicked him in the leg while he was still sitting on the floor. "But, seriously, Danny! OMG, you are the biggest teddy bear that I know!" she smiled to him, a smile that generated directly from her heart.

She stared at Danny and tried to read his reaction before she sat down awkwardly next to him. She could see his embarrassment. She knew Danny well enough to know that he hated to talk about himself, even more so if the conversation entailed acknowledging that he had done something nice. He nervously shifted in his spot a few times. Mindy wanted to tell him that Treasure Box (yes, she had given it a name) meant so much to her and that it was the most thoughtful gift she had _ever_ received, but she knew that acknowledging that fact would make him shut down completely. She looked sympathetically at him, "Yeah, well, thanks for that. I already used the eye drops... I loved it, Danny." she whispered before quickly changing the conversation, "So, I hear there's an appointment tomorrow?" she asked energetically.

Mindy had been able to read his thoughts. Danny let out a deep sigh and shrugged his shoulders, relieved that he could once again put off _that_ conversation until later. He looked at her and responded, "Yeah. How did you find out?"

"Eh, I know a guy." she said in her thick mock Italian accent, the one that Danny hated. She laughed at Danny's reaction and continued, "Betsy has me covering one of your patients tomorrow while you're out. I am a smart girl, Danny. I put two and two together. Shocking, I know." she joked.

"Yeah, shocking. Well, Christina called me earlier to tell me about the appointment. She tried to convince me not to go. That among other things..." he said as he lowered his voice and looked over to Mindy.

"Come on, Danny! You know I hate cliff hangers!" she pleaded, nudging him in the shoulder.

"She absolutely hates you. But I think you already knew that?"

"I'm sorry, what?! Oh my God! She actually said _hate_? As in, I _hate_ that my salad always comes with eggs when I specifically ask them to 'hold the egg'? Seriously, that is the worst, I absolutely hate that!" she asked in disbelief.

"What? No! No comparison. She hates you, Min. Like she would slash your tires or...steal your favorite magazine from your mail."

"I am shocked," Mindy said, placing her hand dramatically to her heart, attempting to show hurt she felt. "How dare she threaten to slash the tires to my imaginary car?! And no one touches my Cosmopolitan!" she gasped.

"Yeah, well, she hates me too, so no worries." he said matter-of-factually, throwing his hands in the air.

"It's her loss, Danny. You and I are amazing. Yeah, you sweat a lot and might sound like a grumpy old man all the time, but hey, we _all_ have our flaws. My sexual appeal seems to intimidate other women. I deal as best I can. Oh, and you have moderate to severe dandruff. Who cares?" Mindy shrugged her shoulders.

"Are you done?" he asked feigning annoyance.

"Well, it's her loss, Danny boy. As long as that kid likes _us_, who the hell cares if she does, am I right?" Mindy said trying to cheer Danny up, "but seriously, she actually said that she _hates_ me? I did not think that was even possible. I knew this girl in kindergarten who told this other girl who sat at the table across from me, whose crayons I may or may not have borrowed and then never returned..."

"Mindy?" he asked, cutting her off mid-thought clearly not hearing her words and lost in thought, "Am I doing the right thing? Should I be involved in this now? I mean, before I know the baby is even mine? Should I wait until after it's born and then become involved? I just don't want to get my hopes up...you know, if..." his voice dropped and he looked to the ground.

"I think you're doing the right thing, Danny. You would kick yourself if you weren't involved from the start of this. And if, let's say..." Mindy said, slowing her words into an eventual pause, "..let's say if the baby_ is Paul's_, well, you know that you did everything right. Danny, I know that you will be a great father. Whether that is in the next few months or in the next few years, you will be a great father. My kids would be lucky to have a father like you..." she said, barely able to get the words out through her emotions. She felt uneasy, the foreboding once again creeping into her mind. She had to turn away from him so that he would not see the pained and worried expression on her face.

Danny once again began throwing the stress ball in the air and felt relieved. He may not have spoken to Mindy about his feelings towards _her_ today, but he felt better knowing that he could count on her through Christina's pregnancy. He smiled and looked over to her, noticing a fleeting _something_ in her eyes before she smiled back at him. It was only there for a moment before being replaced by a slight smile.

Danny continued to play catch with the stress ball as Mindy stood up from the floor. The day was just starting and they each had several patients to see.

"Your last appointment is at 5:15 this afternoon." Mindy knowingly said as she walked out of his office.

He stared at the door as it closed shut behind her. He could not help but to smile as it dawned on him. "She _does_ know my schedule!" he said out loud.

TO BE CONTINUED


	6. Chapter 6 - The Exes are Hell

**Things have been slow going the last few chapters but there's another plot twist coming soon, so please be patient :) Once again, thank you for all of you who have left your reviews! Keep them coming! All encouragement/criticism is welcome!**

CHAPTER 6

Mindy had managed to make it to Tuesday without telling anyone. She had stayed clear of the employees all afternoon yesterday but knew that it was impossible to keep avoiding them altogether. Morgan had an uncanny way of interrogating her to her breaking point, most of the time with the promise of food or tickling her…but ultimately breaking her down. The news that Christina was pregnant would be an absolute shock to everyone and as deliciously enticing as it was to be the first to break the news, Mindy knew that it was not up to her. Danny had kindly requested that she keep it under wraps, at least for now. She couldn't let him down.

Danny was not sure why he felt the need for secrecy, his relationship with Christina had never been a secret in the office. The fact that Paul slept with Christina and him then leaving the office had been on everyone's lips for the 2 weeks that followed, only replaced when Morgan was physically attacked by Sweetie Pie, a dog that he secretly kept in the office.

Danny knew that Mindy was horrible at keeping secrets and was fully expecting her to somehow slip with one of the patients or even with Betsy. He imagined it would happen during a conversation about Betsy's parents followed by Mindy saying, 'Betsy, you have great parents. I know that Danny will be a great father, too when his baby with Christina baby is born. Oh, speaking of Christina, did you see how great Christina Aguilera looks now that she has lost weight?..." Danny laughed at the thought. He knew that he would eventually have to tell everyone what was happening with Christina but for now, he was fine with it being some sort of bond between him and Mindy.

The first half of the morning went by fairly quickly for Danny, as he squeezed in some of his afternoon patients to earlier in the day so that he could leave for Christina's appointment. Glancing down at his watch at exactly 1:21 pm after his last patient of the day left, he knew that he would have to leave soon. I have to change and then I'll see if Mindy is ready to go, he mindlessly thought. Somehow, he had convinced her to come along with him. There was no real reason for her to go and no excuse was needed, thankfully. She simply nodded yes when he had asked.

Danny knew that Mindy's presence would make things harder for Christina today. Danny recalled that Christina had, during their brief reconnection, been extremely jealous of Mindy. She rolled her eyes at every mention of Mindy's name, she angrily huffed under her breath when Danny told her stories of the office shenanigans that involved Mindy, and had even accused Danny of having feelings for Mindy when Danny called things off. Danny recalled how he had avoided looking at her in the eyes when he told her "We are just co-workers. She likes High School Musical for God sakes!" . Christina knew better, her female instincts did not lie. Of course, Danny was not going to admit his feelings for Mindy when he felt that those feelings would _never_ be reciprocated.

But here, just a short few months later, he was picking up his pace as he walked towards Mindy's office to have her go with him to his ex-wife's gynecological exam. Who would have seen this coming?

He stopped by the front desk before he reached Mindy's office. "So, Betsy, you have cleared the rest of my afternoon schedule?" he asked as he sorted through documents on her desk, signing and checking off patient charts.

"Yes! Dr. L also asked me to clear her schedule, too. She just finished up with your 1pm. Are you guys leaving together?" Betsy asked innocently enough, looking up at him from her chair.

Danny pulled anxiously at his shirt collar and began feverishly flipping through the stack of papers on Betsy's counter as if looking at them would give him an answer, when no answer came, "No, why would we be leaving together?" he asked pretending surprise.

"Just asking. She must have a hot date tonight, then. I think she's dating someone she does not want us to know about, must be a _priest_ this time…" Betsy lowered her voice to a whisper, "She has been in a good mood this week, whistling to herself in between patients and avoiding Morgan like the plague. She only avoids Morgan when she has something to hide, because she knows that Morgan will tickle it out of her! Hey, if you talk to her, try to get something out of her." Her voice softened as she continued, " I was getting worried about her, you know after the Casey break up and all…." Betsy gave a sincere look of apathy. Danny felt relieved when the phone began ringing and Betsy dropped the conversation to answer the call. It gave him an opportunity to quickly escape without answering any real questions.

He walked the remaining distance from the front desk to Mindy's door and quietly knocked. No answer. He waited at her door, recalling Betsy's words. Mindy _does_ seem chipper these last few days, besides all the stress barfs of course. He could not help but to hope that it was his doing. It had taken every ounce of courage to leave that box on her desk yesterday morning, he considered taking it back until he received the phone call from Christina. Instead of going back into Mindy's office, he had locked himself in his office and retreated from reality. Danny shook his head to stop himself from thinking, he knocked on Mindy's door again and waited. Still nothing… he placed his hand on the door knob and turned the handle, cracking the door slightly open but he immediately stopped when he heard Mindy's hurried voice "This will not be a waste of my time? If I _do_ go tonight, I want one thing clear, nothing has changed, Casey. Ok? Just so we're clear. This is not a date. Casey, I have to go to a very important meeting now. See you tonight. I will text you later" Danny felt that feeling at the pit of his stomach again and it made him nauseous. He barely had time to digest the bit of conversation he had overheard when Mindy called out towards the door, frustration clearly in her words, "Morgan, please stop eavesdropping! Close the door!" Danny quickly closed the door and walked backed to his office in slight confusion, walking right past Betsy who had outstretched a document for him to sign.

He barely made it to his chair when he heard Mindy at Betsy's desk giving her some orders on his patient, Mrs. Baskill. He was able to hear her giving her goodbyes to everyone and then she appeared at his door. "Just saying goodbye, Danny. I will see you tomorrow" she said with a deep wink before turning and walking out. He stared after her without saying a word. A minute after he heard the elevator door close behind her, his phone buzzed with a new received text message. "In the lobby. Are you coming?" Mindy wrote.

He grabbed his belongings and instantly felt nervous again, his palms sweating. He hated lying to the staff, but it wasn't lying was it? He was simply _not_ telling him where he was going, which was different. He took a deep breath and mustered the energy to walk towards the front desk. "So, I have to go now…and do that thing…." He said pointing towards the door. "I will see everyone tomorrow, I'm leaving early today. Sooo….tomorrow…." he was still standing there, looking at Betsy. Move, Danny! Move your feet! He was cursing at himself.

"Ok, Dr. C. See you tomorrow, you _just_ missed Dr. L. You could have ridden the elevator together and could have asked her about this mysterious man sending her gifts in the middle of the night." She said, looking up from her pile of paperwork and giving him a knowing look.

"I have no reason to want to know what Mindy does with her love life. I would suggest that you guys leave it alone, Betsy. She looks happy, let's just leave it at that." he said, too curtly.

"Well, we all just want to see her back to the old Mindy – the before-Casey Mindy." She smiled and went back to work, not giving a second thought to the conversation that she had just had with her cranky boss.

Danny, on the other hand felt his hands slippery with sweat as he hurriedly walked towards the elevator. She looks happy, he remembered. His face turned cold when he also remembered overhearing her conversation with Casey. She's talking to him again, maybe that's why she has been happy. That has nothing to do with me. He shoved his clammy hands in his pocket after he forcibly shoved the elevator button. Envy was new to Danny Castellano.

He stared at the numbers light up as he descended each floor. When he finally reached L, the elevator doors opened, he looked into the lobby and saw an anxious Mindy looking at him. He inched forwards towards her and held her stare. Her face lit up with a smile that made his stomach turn. "Shall we?" she asked as she began walking towards the front exit. You are a lucky man, Casey, he thought as he nodded his head in response.

Mindy felt nervous on the car ride to the OB appointment and suspected that Danny's quiet and almost angry demeanor had to do with the same thing. She glanced over to him more than a few times, wanting to break the silence but deciding that she had no idea what to say. There was only a handful of times when Mindy was so overwhelmed by a situation that she could think of absolutely nothing to say. She admitted that more than a few of those occasions had been with Danny. What could she say? Good luck? Rooting for you? This situation was outside of her comfort zone. So, she sat in silence until she could not handle it. She finally blurted out "So, you're not even going to put any music on? Not even your lame talk radio shows? You're killing me, Danny. Let me look for Top 40's…." she reached out to touch his stereo.

He all but crashed his car, "No! Mindy, my car _will not be_ subjected to that ridiculous music! There are certain things in life that will never happen. One, it's a fact that the Jets will never _ever_ win a SuperBowl. Two, a prostitute will never step foot in my house again…" he paused and glanced over to Mindy, shaking his head no "…and somewhere else on that list of things that will never happen: my stereo will never be tuned to a Top 40s station! Period, end of discussion."

"What the hell, Danny? You need to broaden your horizons. Life isn't all Bruce Springsteen or The National." She said as she crossed her hands across her chest like a defeated child.

"Not going to happen, Lahiri. I'm very happy with my choice of music, thank you. Not your girly stuff, your Backstreet Boys or your Christina Aguilera or your Britney Spears…."

"Danny, while you just named very amazing artists, this is not 1999, those are not Top 40s. Seriously, catch up to 2013, will you?" slightly annoyed at how clueless he could be.

"Well, shoot me in the face" he dryly responded, he had long ago gotten used to being called out for not knowing current music trends. He prided himself in that fact.

"Oh, no! That is my saying, Danny. You can't steal it from me. Get your own" she said as she punched him in the arm.

"Ouch!" rubbing the spot where Mindy had hit him, "Are you serious? You do not own that saying and I will use it however and when I feel the urge to" he was messing with her and he loved how she would get worked up about nothing.

"It's mine. I say it's mine. Stick to what you know, old man."

"For the hundredth time, we are the same age!"

"Whatever, old man." She always had to have the last word. Mindy redirected her attention to the outside world passing by and noticed a rather large clinical building. "Is this the place?" she asked as Danny cautiously pulled into the parking deck.

"Yeah, I think so…" he quietly said. They both suddenly became aware of where they were. "So, Min, Christina knows you're coming so don't expect to be attacked from the get-go…." He casually said as he parked. He looked to her for reassurance.

"You told her I was coming? And she was totally okay with that?" she wanted to know.

"Well, I didn't really give her a choice. I just told her that you were coming with me." they were both getting out of the car.

With a deep breath, Danny began walking towards the large stone entrance. Mindy stayed behind a few steps to gather her thoughts. He held the door open for her and they slipped in, their eyes searching the waiting area for recognizable faces.

Danny spotted Christina first across the room and made his way over to her with Mindy following closely behind. Christina was wearing a loose fitting, floral maternity dress. A maternity dress?! Seriously, Christina? You do not even look pregnant yet! Mindy thought incredulously. After making this observation, Mindy felt awkwardly out-of-place and almost regretted having tagged along. Should I even be here?, she thought as she glanced around the room looking for Paul.

Christina finally spotted them moving towards her and raised her hand, acknowledging them. When they were finally within a few feet of distance of her, Danny asked Christina the obvious, "So, where's Paul?"

"He isn't coming. He doesn't need to be here for every single appointment, Danny" she angrily answered while rolling her eyes.

"Whoa, Christina! Hormonal, much?" Mindy interjected.

"No, Mindy, I just don't need him here. In fact, I would have been perfectly happy doing this without you two here." Christina was clearly agitated. Mindy could make out the veins running through Christina's forehead and almost felt sorry for having made her upset.

"Calm down, Christina. Just relax. We are already here. Let's just get this done, ok?" Danny said, trying to defuse the situation. He eyed both Mindy and Christina, as if restraining them back from attacking each other.

Danny and Mindy found seats next to each other in the waiting room and Christina sat directly across from them, loving the opportunity to make the pair as uncomfortable as possible. Jumping at the opportunity, she started, "So, Danny, you've seen my vagina _obviously_, but I would appreciate it if Mindy stayed away from that area during my exam." she began waving her hand in a circular fashion right above her thighs. Her eyes fixed on Mindy.

"Whoa, really, Christina? I am an OB for God sake, nothing I haven't seen before." She quipped but then followed with "But, it's your baby, I will respect whatever you want …" Mindy threw in the white flag. She loved getting Christina upset but accepted that she was a secondary role in this story and that Christina needed to relax. She had already accepted that Christina was lucky enough to experience the joy of pregnancy. I envy you, Mindy thought, you get to experience this and have Danny by your side for all of it. Even if he isn't the father, he will be there for you, you ungrateful cat.

"Fine. As long as we're clear." She said as she picked up a copy of Parenthood and began browsing its pages, her expression showing displeasure.

Not long after, a nurse poked around the corner and called out "Christina Castellano?"

Did I hear that right? Castellano? What the hell? Mindy thought in shock as she looked up at the nurse, wide-eyed. Mindy felt a sharp pain at the sound of those two simple words together, _Christina Castellano_. She had always assumed that Christina never took on Danny's last name when they were married so Christina now being referred to as Castellano made Mindy wince. Christina caught the expression in Mindy's eyes because she stood up and repeated, "I'm here. I am Christina _Castellano_", sounding Castellano out as slowly as possible. She then walked past Mindy and led them all down the hall into the examining room. Christina was ushered to a restroom by the nurse as Danny and Mindy waiting in the examining room.

Christina entered the room seconds after her doctor, Dr. Deborah McLaren.

Dr. McLaren greeted Christina and then turned her attention to Danny and Mindy as Christina made no attempt to introduce the other two in the room. There was an awkward silence until Danny spoke up "Um, yeah, I'm Dr. Danny Castellano and this is Dr. Mindy Lahiri, she is a colleague of mine at Shulman & Associates. I dragged her along…"

"Danny _might_ also be the father to the baby, that's why he's here." Christina said dryly, cutting Danny off and addressing the elephant in the room. "I really don't know why _she_ is here though" she followed, raising an eyebrow to Mindy.

Dr. McLaren simply nodded and faced Danny, "Well, congratulations, I think?"

He responded by shrugging his shoulders and placing his hands in pockets.

"Let's get started, shall we?" Dr. McLaren was ready to get out of this awkward room as soon as possible.

Mindy grabbed the magazine which she had brought from the waiting room and began reading through the pages, attempting to fake that she was not interested in the exam. She entertained herself by flipping through the pages, identifying babies which she thought that her own imaginary children would look like. She occasionally looked up from her pages just to steal a glance at Danny. The sweat from his underarms was starting to moisten his cotton button down shirt. On more than one occasion, she would look up from her magazine to him staring at her. They would exchange smiles and immediately look away.

Mindy thought about how Paul was absent from this appointment, but how Danny set aside his whole afternoon for just this one half hour. Mindy had learned that whatever was important to Danny, trumped everything else in his life. She fondly recollected the amount of countless times that he had dropped whatever he was doing to come to her aid. She realized not too long ago that she was important to Danny Castellano….she looked over again to Danny and fondly gazed at him. Get yourself together, Mindy! You are here Danny to an OB appointment for what is possibly his first-born with Christina! She forced herself to react and look away from Danny. She began flipping through the glossy pages and let her eyes begin to search the volume of pages for what she thought a Castellano-Lahiri baby would look like.

The appointment was over in a flash. So far, so good. The baby was in good health, growing adequately and there were no concerns at the moment. Christina was given instructions to prenatal care, which was a bit redundant, given the fact that either father was an OB.

"So, see you at the next appointment" Danny said in a matter of fact way Christina, offering a hand to her so that she could get up from the examining table.

She did not accept his hand and scooted down the side of the table, until finally sliding down to her feet. "Sure, whatever, but I told you. You don't need to be here for these. I don't need you" Christina knew how to push his buttons.

"Don't confuse this, Christina. I am not here for you…" his words trailed as he considered his options. After going through the words in his mind he continued, his voice lowering to above a whisper "I don't need to, but I want to. Not for you, remember that Christina. For my child" his voice began to crack and he looked away from Christina.

"We don't know that for sure, Danny. _Might_ be your child. Whatever, I will see you next visit." She said before turning to look at Mindy and briskly walking away from them.

Danny and Mindy walked to the car and were on the way back to Mindy's apartment when Danny huffed under his breath and wiped his hands which had become moist from the sweat.

"Well, thank you again…for coming. This is important to me, Min. Thanks" he nervously said and he would have grabbed her and pulled her into a hug if the memory of her earlier conversation with Casey had not filled into his head. He wondered why she had not mentioned anything about that to him.

"Yeah, it's nothing. It's about time I paid you back for all of those times that you have bailed me out of some…interesting…jams." She laughed. "I am starving, Danny! How about I treat you to lunch on the way back to my place? Can we stop by that hot dog stand? My treat!" she batted her eyes at him and grinned.

"No, how do you eat that stuff? You know they serve horse meat there? And besides, that guy charges ridiculous prices. I am not having that." he shook his head no.

"Come on, Danny! Please? I totally could go for a hot dog now.. or 4… I am starving! I missed lunch to come here with you to your baby mama's appointment. This is the least you could do, and like I said, my treat!" placing her hands together in prayer like fashion.

"No! But in the spirit of compromise, I will take you to the best hot dog stand in New York. I know a guy." he began…

Mindy stopped him, "I know a guy" she mocked him, adding her thickest, most inaccurate tough New York accent she could muster "God, Danny, you are undeniably Italian! Fine, whatever. Take me to your mafia run hot dog stand." She said, throwing her hands up in the air, faking defeat. "Whatever, Mr. Too Good for Jersey" followed by hysterical laughing.

"That's not even funny. Quit laughing." He said, rolling his eyes but smiling. "Not funny. Okay, that's enough." He continued to plead when her laughter didn't stop. He couldn't help but to chuckle as she could not contain her laughter.

Mindy put Christina in the furthest corner of her mind and was able to laugh whole-heartedly with Danny. I need this, she thought, as she stuffed her face with 3 hot dogs, ones even better than her favorite spot.

Danny simply chose to ignore the thoughts of Christina and Casey, there was no way of pushing them to the back of _his_ mind. Ignorance is bliss at times. Right now was one of those times.

TO BE CONTINUED


	7. Chapter 7 - Back into the Grave

Here is another chapter for your perusal, fellow Projects :) Please leave a comment, criticism, suggestion, etc. This is my first story, so I would love feedback. :)

CHAPTER 7

Mindy had chosen to wear her favorite black, fitted skirt with a light blue silk blouse. It was exactly 8 o'clock and she regretted having accepted this inconvenient dinner invitation. She had better things to do with her time, like wash her hair or watch her leg hair grow back.

"Right on time, as usual," Mindy dully said to the tall man standing opposite her once she opened her door. She took a moment and looked over his attire: black fitted slacks and a blue button down shirt. Her defenses crumbled and she smiled at how they had unintentionally matched.

God, we _were_ kind of great together weren't we? she thought briefly. Wait, what?! Stop thinking, just stop thinking, Min. She forced her brain off for just a few seconds and almost did not hear Casey speaking to her.

"This is a surprise, you are _on time_ for the first time! Got to be honest, I am a bit disappointed. I really wanted to finish reading this chapter." Casey familiarly responded, showing her a large book which he had brought along for the wait. He happily added, "How you doin' girl? Your hair is growing out nicely and you look amay-za-zing!" Casey's words always appeared sung. Mindy flinched, that sing-song way that Casey talked was always slightly irritating to her but she put up with it because he was her _very_ serious Pastor boyfriend turned fiancé. Now, however, the words seemed annoying.

"Why, thank you. You look pretty dapper as well" Mindy _did_ think he looked pretty good. Mindy was pleasantly surprised at how quickly they fell into conversation. Her earlier reservations about tonight dissipated. She was still very curious to know _why_ he was suddenly interested in seeing her. Casey was not a person known for persistence, but today he had called her at least six times on her cell phone before he dialed the office line. He said that he needed to see her in person because he there was something important she needed to know. She had two scenarios drawn up in her head: 1. He _was_ gay and coming out of the closet (not her doing, _of course_) 2. He still loved her and wanted to marry her. The first option left her nothing to work with. The latter, not much. She almost felt bad having to refuse him in person.

Her mind jumped from graciously declining his renewed vow of love... to their break up not too long ago. Although it had been somewhat mutual, she did feel her life fall to pieces when it happened. It took a full three days to get out of bed and that was only because Gwen showed up without warning and rolled her out of her bed and shoved her into the shower. It was another two days before she could get herself to go to work. Morgan made her go home that day because she was scaring the patients.

Through that emotional devastation, there were two constants in her life: Gwen and Danny. Gwen was always just a phone call away but Danny was with her _every_ day. He showed up like clockwork after work, with a bag of take-out so she would not starve to death. She wasn't really even sure how he found out about the breakup, he had just shown up at her apartment the day after Casey left. She suspected Gwen told him but never approached her on that subject. She sighed at the thought of Danny.

"Yo, Mindy? Mindy?" Casey waved his hands slowly across her face trying to get her attention. She had stopped listening to him for some time.

"Oh, yeah, sorry. I was thinking about a patient at work, her pregnancy is just super delicate and she could go into labor at any second"…. Please forgive me for lying to Casey, she thought as she looked up to the sky. She composed herself. "Let's go."

They walked to the restaurant located only two blocks from Mindy's apartment. Once they arrived, Mindy felt strangely relaxed as they received their appetizers and glasses of wine. Casey looks so good, she thought to herself, I wonder how he looked after we broke up. Was he as disgusting as me? Her face winced at the memory of how horrible she looked…and smelled.

"So, you may be wondering why I asked you to dinner tonight," Casey's face suddenly turned somber.

"Um, yeah, ok. We're doing this _now_" she mumbled as she awkwardly lowered the cracker bite of the delicious spinach dip that was being shoved in her mouth.

"So, I just got back from Texas last night. It turns out my passion is not event planning. You called it!" he shot an imaginary gun at Mindy who stared blankly in return. "Yeah, well... I didn't discover my career path, but that trip changed my life, Mindy!" his face became animated and he began fidgeting with his napkin holder. "I want you to _not_ say anything until I am done, ok?" he asked slowly waiting for her to say something. When she didn't, he continued "Mindy, I know that we didn't work out as a couple, but I consider you one of my best friends. I know you care for me and I care about you, too. That's why I need you to give me your blessing." he looked over to Mindy, lowered his voice and looked at her earnestly, "Mindy, I got married last week..." He stopped and braced himself for what was coming.

"You WHAT?!" she immediately yelled as she stood up from her chair, almost knocking it over. "Are you kidding me? We broke up like…a second ago!" She shook her head trying to shake such a ridiculous notion out of her head, "Are you out of your mind?! What's in that Texas air? I mean, listen to yourself, Casey!" She was panting, she couldn't find her breath. She glared down at him, confused.

Casey stood up slowly and placed a very comforting hand on Mindy's forearm, "Please, Mindy. Just sit down, you're getting upset. Just relax and sit down, please" He spoke as smoothly as possibly, trying to help her stay calm. She slid back into her seat as Casey continued "I know this has to sound crazy to you. This is why I had to do this in person and didn't want you to find out from someone else. I really want you to be happy for me, Mindy. Anne is an amazing woman and I would really like for you to meet her before we leave the day after tomorrow…." his words picking up pace as his eyes fixed on Mindy with sincere affection in his eyes.

"I'm sorry, _what_? You want me to what? Casey, you and I were just engaged. You_ just_ left for Texas! There is no way that you are married! I still stab your voodoo doll! Obviously I was stabbing the wrong body part..." She grabbed her fork and jabbed at the space in front of her. She stopped when she caught a glimpse of the wedding band on Casey's finger for the first time. Suddenly, she felt like the wind was knocked out of her.

Casey stared at Mindy for a moment and continued, "When I left for Texas, I was heartbroken. But I went and poured my heart and soul into event planning. That's when I met Anne, she is a teacher at one of the local middle schools there, down the block from where I studied. She is a good person, Mindy, please be happy for me. Please? I know that I didn't do anything that wrong, but I can't stand the thought of you hating me for this." Casey's eyes were soft and piercing her heart. She felt angry, she felt helpless and she felt like vomiting.

Keep it together, Mindy. Just take deep breaths in and out and get through this. They each sat in silence for two full minutes.

Mindy took a small sip of her wine and weighed her options. She just wanted to get home. Now.

She stood from her seat once again, and calmly spoke, "Casey, I know you want me to be okay with this. I will be, it's not like I have a choice. But, please give me some time to process this. Give me time. Just don't bother calling me or looking for me tomorrow, ok?" She extended her hand to show good will and Casey cupped her hand with both of his, gently squeezed it as he looked at her face.

"You got it, girl" he said. His voice dropped into flatness as he stared after her when she walked away.

"What the hell is going on with my life?!" She screamed to the night air, causing passers-by to look at her with a look of surprise. She felt broken…again.

She walked those two blocks back to her apartment in reverie of her life and all the mistakes which had led her to this moment. She walked lazily, dragging her feet along the concrete ground with her high heels dangling in her hands to each side of her.

She eventually reached her apartment and mindlessly went through the motions of changing into pajamas, brushing her teeth, and sitting on her couch to watch TV. Oddly enough, she had not stress barfed. She was more angry at the outcome of the dinner than stressed about anything in particular. How can he be married?! She thought as tears began to collect in the corners of her eyes. How did he move on so fast?! She stopped fighting back the tears and released her emotions. What began as whimpering fully progressed to wailing. She felt herself totally absorbed by the emotions of shock, disappointed love and hurt. She grieved for their relationship all over again with renewed vigor.

When it seemed like there was possibly no way that her body could produce more tears, she allowed her mind to wander. So, he moved on, I obviously was not good enough to marry. Why do I even care?! Her self-pity drastically turned to anger. I should be the one happily married! I should be the one finding my prince charming or _my_ Mr. Darcy! She once again began to whimper.

She found solace in her pink blanket. When she wrapped the fuzzy material around her body, she remembered Danny. She sighed and cursed herself for allowing her mind to stray from the pain of Casey telling her he had gotten married. Damn you, Danny, let me wallow in my sadness for a while, will you? She cursed herself again. In fact, the more she tried not to think of her Italian friend, the more she remembered his face, his awkwardness at times, his gentle yet smoldering eyes, _everything_ about him.

This is shitty, absolutely shitty! Casey gets married to some girl he's only just met and I have feelings for Danny?! Seriously, universe?! What's next? Kardashian's getting cancelled?! Mindy mumbled angrily to the emptiness around her.

With that, she pulled the blanket over her head wishing that somehow in doing so, she would be able to stop her mind from running circles around the chaotic mess that was her life. She wanted to tune out Casey's voice from repeating over and over to her "I'm married…" She hoped that she could somehow smother the feelings that made her want to scream from the heartache and disappointment. More than anything, she wished that she could simply fall asleep and wake up to a tomorrow that didn't include a pregnant Christina _or_ a married Casey. Her world just didn't seem normal. How could just a few days change everything?

The blanket over her head didn't magically change her reality. When she was finally done crying, done hoping that her life were different, she got up from the couch and headed towards the kitchen still wrapped in the blanket. Damn it, nothing but wine and stale crackers. I am not fit to be seen, she strained to see her reflection on the microwave. Chinese take out, it is! The thought of food immediately made her feel better.

Just as she grabbed her phone to dial for Chinese, it buzzed in her hand. One new text from Danny. She sighed and swiped her screen.

'Grabbing some Chinese, you in?'

"Ugh, what the hell? Does he have surveillance on me or something?!" she said to no one in particular but glanced around her kitchen. She was about to reply in the affirmative, but felt that she would not be good company in the state that she was in.

'Rain check. Thanks. See you tomorrow"

TO BE CONTINUED


	8. Chapter 8 - Let Go

**Welcome back, fellow Projects! Feel free to voice your suggestions on where this story should go. :)**

CHAPTER 8

The brisk morning air was refreshing as she hurriedly made her way to the subway. Somehow, she had managed to fall asleep at a relatively decent hour last night and on a full stomach, so she woke this morning with renewed spirits. She dreaded the onslaught of patients that were on this morning's schedule, but it had to be done, she knew this would happen when she rescheduled them because of Christina's gyno appointment.

This is a new day, Mindy, she smiled to herself. Yesterday had been torture, absolute hell. In fact, when she woke this morning snuggled in her bed with her favorite blanket, it almost seemed like a dream. I could not have lived through that, right? She questioned. But when the memory of the day flooded her mind, she knew that it had in fact happened. She had accompanied Danny to Christina's appointment and Casey had in fact told her that she had been replaced and that he was married. She shuddered either as a reflex of what craziness was filling her thoughts or at the air which had seeped in through the subway doors.

She was devoured by her thoughts and she fought hard to restore that refreshed spirit from earlier this morning when she felt, more than heard, a familiar voice next to her. She looked up and there was Danny. Right on time, she thought. She had admittedly gotten herself dressed this morning a little faster than was the normal, she had walked a bit faster than she typically did getting to the train, and she had stationed herself as near the doors as possible to get a good look at who was coming in. She may or may not have given a very rude look to an elderly gentleman who tried to occupy the same standing pole that she was reserving for a special someone. She allowed a smile to escape her lips when she looked at Danny and although appreciated, it didn't answer his question so he asked again, "Is this spot taken? Do you mind if we ride together this morning?" She nodded in response.

"How are you doing this morning, Danny boy?" she asked a little too enthusiastically, catching herself and immediately following with a much deeper and more pensive face, "I mean, you're probably stressed out and all, given the fact that your ex-wife is preggers with a baby which may or may not be yours…" What the crap, Mindy? she kicked herself for being such a butt and gave him a look of apology.

"I'm doing ok, given the circumstances" he mildly responded, not sure whether to respond in a chipper or somber mood. The look on Mindy's face made him smile but there was something about her which clouded his mind, she looked as though she had been crying. He knew her well enough and he'd comforted her through enough drama to know when she had been crying.

"Sorry, my brain is fried this morning. If I offend you in any way today, I apologize in advice. So, feel lucky that I'm offering any sort of apology. This won't ever happen again. Unless, you deserve it of course, in that case, I don't apologize…and I'll add in a 'Screw you, Danny" Mindy rushed the words out of her mouth.

"What are you _on_ today? If that's coffee, geez, Min, limit yourself to one cup in the morning, you're so wired. Were you up to 3 in the morning watching When Harry Met Sally, again? Lay off of those movies during the week, seriously." he grinned at her, he loved it when she was this way. Her energy always made him feel more up to making ridiculous jokes with her, which meant her pretending to be mad and she would at one point or other, slap or punch him in the arm. He acted like a little kid with her. He gave her a wider grin but then his face went blank when he recalled who she was meeting with last night. The thought made his hands clinch into fists.

"What?! No. I wish! This is all morning energy! I was about to jog a little, that is until I realized that I haven't washed any of my exercise clothes in about three months. So, that was a no-go. Instead, I did three sit-ups. That should cancel out those three donuts, right?" Mindy felt herself blabbering but just couldn't stop. She felt extra anxious this morning.

"You keep telling yourself that, Mindy."

They walked to the office together in their usual banter.

"Good morning, Dr. C. and hey, Dr. L." Betsy greeted with her usual kind words when they walked into the office.

"Hey, Betsy, any emergencies come up yesterday while we were out?" he said, picking up a small stack of papers which Betsy laid out in front of him.

"Nothing that couldn't wait." Betsy replied. She then turned her attention to Mindy "Mrs. Ashford cancelled her appointment again this morning. Please call her, she won't listen to me anymore" she asked then handed her the patient chart. "Oh, and Dr. L, Casey has called all morning. He's left three messages just within the past 20 minutes. He said that he really needs to talk about last night" handing Mindy a few more pieces of paper.

"Oh, yeah. Well, he can wait, I need to call Mrs. Ashford first. If he calls again, tell him that I died last night and that he is not invited to my funeral. Tell him that it's in my will that he can't come." Mindy quickly retreated to her office, knowing that she was leaving behind a very confused Danny. She wanted him to follow her, she expected it. To say that she was disappointed when he didn't immediately follow would be an understatement. After about 5 minutes, she had even stood at her closed door, hoping that she could hear his footsteps or hear whispered conversation between he and Betsy, but nothing, she could vaguely hear movement on the other end of the door but nothing she could quite understand. Eventually after about 10 minutes, she decided her day must go on. She picked up the phone and convinced Mrs. Ashford to reschedule.

As she walked out to tell Betsy about Mrs. Ashford, she saw Morgan, Tamra and Betsy huddled around the front desk area in hushed conversation. When Betsy made eye contact with Mindy, she immediately stood up from her chair and started waving her hands frantically in an effort to hurry Mindy over to them.

"Oh, Dr. L - I told him to leave, but he wouldn't listen. Now, I can hear Dr. C in there yelling. Does Dr. C know karate? I think we heard him threaten to use it." She spoke in a hushed voice and had placed her hand over her mouth making it difficult to understand half of what she was saying.

"Dr. L – I would have gone in there, but I don't know whose side I should be on. I mean, Dr. C is totes like my BFF from the hood but I mean, Pastor is like my soul buddy, you know, before the whole DJ fiasco…" Morgan didn't have a chance to finish before Mindy interrupted.

"What?! What are you guys talking about? Who is in there with Danny?" she pointed towards Danny's closed door. Muffled voices behind the doors occasionally rose an almost audible level.

The faces of the huddled group just looked back at her but gave no response.

"Who is in there?" Mindy demanded, her voice raised to an uncomfortable level for the staff.

After the longest 5 seconds in the world, Betsy finally said, "Dr. C is in there with Casey. He showed up right after you went into your office and demanded to speak to you but Dr. C wouldn't let him. He told him that you had specifically requested NOT to talk to him and then Casey started saying that he needed your forgiveness and Dr. C forced him to go into his office. We can't hear what's going on but Dr. C is using his Jersey voice. He is definitely not happy." Betsy could barely finish the sentence when Danny's door flew open and Casey almost stumbled out with Danny hovering directly behind him, his hands directing him towards the exit.

The huddled bodies dispersed, all but Mindy. She stood her ground, her hands to hips. She stared down a very clumsy looking Casey and a confused Danny.

As soon as Casey saw Mindy, he walked towards her but Danny picked up his pace and placed himself between the two. He instinctively stood next to Mindy and placed his left arm around her shoulders without thinking. Danny's warm touch on her body made her shiver although she had long lost the chill of the outside air. Danny felt her body quiver under his arm and held her just a bit tighter.

Casey began, "I am so sorry, Mindy, for doing this here. But you weren't picking up my calls after you left last night and then you weren't responding to my messages. I just really need to talk to you, I need to know you're ok." He looked at Mindy with those same pleading eyes that had put down her defenses the night before. He looked to Danny and then back to Mindy, registered the way Danny protectively held Mindy and immediately took a step back.

Mindy took a bit longer than necessary to respond. She was minimally distracted by Danny being so close to her, his warmth radiating across her shoulders. She quivered again. "Casey, you don't just show up here and make a scene in my office. I told you very clearly last night, I didn't want you to call or look for me! I thought I made myself very clear on that!" if looks could kill, Casey was definitely feeling like he could die right about now. Mindy was upset at him for just showing up without giving her chance to explain what was going on to Danny.

"Casey, please just go. We will have lunch like civilized adults but I cant do this, not here, not now" Mindy gave a look over to Danny who released his arm from around her. She again retreated to her office and closed the door.

Mindy felt strangely in control of the situation. She was upset at Casey but she felt like she could take on the world just at that moment. She recalled Casey's face who was pleading for her forgiveness; she recalled the way her body shrunk into Danny's very strong and protective arm. I am such a bad ass, she thought as she plopped down into her office chair.

As she was getting settled, there was a timid knock on her door. "If that's you Casey, please just leave. I will text you later about lunch." She really was getting annoyed at Casey's persistence.

"Mindy, hey, it's me and I am coming in, whether you like it or not" the very familiar voice croaked on the other side of the door.

Mindy expected the door to slowly open but instead Danny barged in. He was clearly upset and immediately began pacing her office.

"Hey, Danny, thanks for trying to help out back there. I told Casey not to…" she began firing words as fast as she could but she still wasn't fast enough, Danny stopped her mid sentence because he clearly had not heard any of what she had said.

"What is going on, Min? Did he hurt you? I gave him the benefit of the doubt just now, but tell me if laid a hand on you! That bastard will not get any mercy!" His pacing continued but he focused all of his attention to Mindy.

"What?! Oh, no. God, no, why would you think that?!" she said shocked, putting a hand in the air in defense. "No, of course not, he's a Pastor….or WAS a pastor." She continued to look at Danny incredulously.

"Ok, just so you know, I will take him down if I need to. He won't know what hit him." he started punching the air similar to a boxer before any match.

"While your attempts to fight are commendable, in this case they are not warranted. Well, not _that_ warranted. Casey did ask for forgiveness but it's for something…" Mindy looked away from Danny and her words began to fail her. She could feel the emotion building once again in her chest. Her eyes moved back to Danny and could see the anticipation in his eyes. "Well, if you must know, Casey moved on. I wasn't good enough for him and he got married last week. He told me last night, he's in New York with her and wants me to meet her before they head back to Texas tomorrow." Mindy dropped her eyes again from Danny who stood and stared back at her at a loss for words.

"What?! He what?!" He couldn't believe that Casey, of all people, would move on from Mindy so fast. "He wouldn't tell me what happened between you guys last night but just said that he needed your forgiveness" Danny glanced at Mindy who looked as though she was beginning to tear up. "Min, I thought you were over him?" He knew that he desperately wanted to hear that she was over Casey and felt his heart suspended in air for her response, his feelings were also on the line here. He took a step closer to her.

Mindy shrugged her shoulders and stood up from her chair. She turned her back to Danny and rested against the solid frame of her desk for support. She felt so different from this morning and even from just a moment ago, all of her bravado was gone, taken away in a single swoop of Casey's showing up at the office. And here she was now, explaining her feelings to Danny. Her body ached for Danny to just hold her and tell her that it was going to be okay, instead she felt alone, standing against her desk merely for the ability to stand. Here she stood, with her eyes closed, her mind raced and she forced herself to articulate the emotions that were inside her head. "Danny, when Casey and I broke up, I grieved for us. I cried and thought that there was nothing more inside of me that could possibly create more tears. You saw that, you lived that. But, then last night, he forced his reality into my life again… He invited me to dinner last night, and we just fell perfectly into our old routine. We had a nice talk and then he sprung this news on me without warning." Mindy could not see Danny because she was still turned away from him but knew his eyes were focused on her, " I feel betrayed. I feel heartbroken again, not so much for Casey, but for the realization that it was me that wasn't good enough for him." she said through clenched teeth. Her voice softened again "Casey was not for me. I know that now. But it's still sad to know that he moved on so fast. That is all. I grieved, now I am better." And with that, she wiped a single tear from her cheek and turned around to face Danny. She was shocked to see that Danny had stepped closer to her and was within inches of where she stood. She inhaled deeply and just stared at him. I hope he looks away from me, his eyes are going to suck me in. Mindy thought as she continued to look at him. She was relieved when he broke the trance that they were both in and looked towards her door.

Danny was surprised when Mindy turned around. He had not realized that his feet were moving closer to where she stood. What if I just kiss her and get this over with? I want her to know that she is wanted by someone. Casey is a punk who didn't deserve her. But, who is to say that I deserve her? Didn't I almost call her a slut not too long ago? The recollection of his behavior towards Mindy forced him to look away from her. I don't deserve her. "Well, can you blame him, Min?!" he attempted a grin and instead shrugged his shoulder and shifted his weight "Look, I'm sorry, Min for whatever Casey made you go through last night. But if there is one thing I do know a lot about..it's about holding onto grudges. Don't hold onto that if your heart is telling you that Casey and you were not meant to be. Yeah, I' m sure it sucks balls, but he's being a decent guy by coming out here and doing this personally. And you said it yourself, you are over him. What's the big deal, then? Move on, he won't be happy until he gets the all clear from you." Danny was able to get the words out of his mouth relatively painlessly. He laid his hand on her shoulder and began patting it. "Cheer up, Min. I'm sure there are plenty of guys out there whose lives you can screw up. Casey can be the past. Just let it go."

"Did you just wipe your sweaty hands on my shirt?" Mindy responded. "That is disgusting, dude" her face not conveying the disgust which she attempted to say in her words. Her smile said it all.

"Seriously, Lahiri? That's all you can talk about right now, are my sweaty hands?" he quickly stepped back and threw his hands in the air in a show of frustration then into his pockets.

"Chill, will you?" Mindy looked at Danny again and her face softened. "Seriously, though, thanks for everything, Danny. I know what I have to do. I just need to get through this lunch with Casey. I am not sure that I forgive him for getting over me so soon, but I am sure that my heart knows that I can't be upset at him for finding love…" she sighed at the mention of Casey finding love. "Give or take a few years, but I think Casey might eventually make it to being a good friend."

"You and your tiers." He huffed remembering her ridiculous idea of tiers of friendship "But, no problem, Mindy. I am here for you…just like you have been there for me with the whole Christina situation" he began to say but his emotions were getting the better of him. He cleared his throat as she looked at him, emotion swelling in her chest as well.

"Well, look at the two of us! Danny boy, I am submitting our stories to Hallmark! Who knew that two people could have so much drama?! Sandra Bullock will play me perfectly…and hmm….who could be you? Oh, I know! Alan Rickman! He can definitely handle the gloom and doom of your personanility, sure he's English but I'm sure he can do an American accent." Mindy had taken out a sheet of paper and scribbled on the top "Danny and Mindy…." when Danny placed his hand on hers. She immediately looked at him.

"Min, hold it right there. No movies, this is not a movie! And no, Alan Rickman could never pull this off" he gestured his hands up and down his body, suggestively.

"Gag me with a spoon, Castellano." she replied. She put down her pen and placed a hand to her hip "Alan Rickman will do. And please, if you don't mind, I have lots and lots of important of work to do. Shoo!" she waved her free hand towards the door.

"Yeah, I have more work than you…." He playfully joked. As he placed his hand on the door to leave, he turned to Mindy "Well, I am glad that you are feeling better. If you feel the need for a chaperone today, you know where to find me" his sincerity emanating from his smile.

"Thanks, but I think I have to do this alone. If Casey insists that I meet the Mrs, then yes, you are definitely my date. Thanks again, Danny…. Could you please tell the guys out there that everything is ok but that I want to be left alone for the day?" she asked pointing her finger in the direction of the front desk area. "I'm sure they think that Casey beat me up, that he cheated on me like Josh did, there is no telling what they accuse him of. I will let them in on everything later today. I just need to get through that lunch first."

Danny agreed and slowly walked out, not before being accosted by Morgan as he slipped out of her office.

She sat in silence at her desk and sighed before she texted Casey about lunch. She felt in charge of her destiny again. She would have lunch with Casey and forgive whatever there was to forgive. He found his destiny, it was just time for her to find hers… Her heart jumped a beat when she looked down at her desk and saw her scribbling "Danny and Mindy" and remembered his light touch on her hand when she was writing those three words.

TO BE CONTINUED


	9. Chapter 9 - Cat Lady

CHAPTER 9

Mindy was deep in thought about Mrs. Ashford, whose chart she was currently reviewing, when she received an interoffice call.

"It's 12:30, you _should be_ gone." the male voice said bluntly.

"Danny, first off, you have _no_ idea when I am supposed to leave. Second, get a life. Stop being so obsessed with me, you weirdo!" She quipped while she glanced at her new, pink clock on the wall. Damn it, it _is_ 12:30!, she thought as she hurriedly gathered her things. She had become absorbed by work and had not noticed the time.

"You said lunch. Lunch implies 12:30. _Excuse me_ if I don't want you starve yourself and become extremely irritable. It's like working with Godzilla sometimes!... I am simply preventing that." What he didn't mention to Mindy was that he spent the last hour playing detective. He pieced together information from small tidbits of conversation with Betsy, the _when_ and the _where_ of her lunch plans with Casey. He already knew the _why_. Sure, he could have just asked, but he didn't want to seem too interested. For the past 10 minutes, Danny sat in his office and stared at the clock, mentally counting down the minutes before Mindy left to meet with Casey. All of his efforts proved unnecessary, as Casey called the office to ask if Mindy had left already. Danny was at Betsy's desk when the call came in and convinced Betsy to allow him to take it. He confirmed the _when_, the _where_ but most importantly, he laid the ground rule: don't make Mindy cry...or else!

"Whatever, Castellamo! I am _always_ a joy to be around. I will have you know that 'Scouts named me Ms. Sunshine runner-up two years in a row! I still have my ribbons." Mindy said defensively.

"Girl Scouts? I didn't know you were in Girl Scouts...and runner up, huh? You should feel special." he said, mocking her.

"Well, actually, no. I was not in _Girl_ Scouts. My parents, Rishi and I would camp in our back yard and they just called that excursion the 'Little Scouts'. Damn Rishi would play favorite and win first place..." she angrily huffed before recalling the time. "I am hanging up now. Get a life!" she sung those last words as she ended the call. Shit, I am so late, she thought as she rushed out of the office.

Mindy felt a mixture of nervousness, anxiety and relief when she entered the tiny bistro. The moment she walked in, Casey stood and waved her over to the table. She held her head high and waltzed towards him with that same rush of confidence from before. She slowed upon reaching Casey and extended her hand for a handshake but instead Casey leaned in, wrapped his arms around her upper body and squeezed her shoulders in a tight hug. Her body instinctively hugged back. This is what _Danny_ should have done in my office today, she thought as she pulled out of Casey's arms.

She slowly took her seat and focused on the delicious plate of food which Casey had taken the liberty of ordering for her. You're a married man, Mr. Casey Peerson. You_ should not be _ordering food for your_ hot, _single, lunch companion, she thought to herself angrily. Mindy knew that she was being ridiculous and there was no reason for her to think it inappropriate. Of course he ordered for her, he did it so many times before.

Casey read her mind and began, "I hope you don't mind me ordering? I just figured, well... since you love being late.. and when I called you, Danny said that you were still at the office. I figured I'd go ahead and order..." his words formed a question and not a statement. He quickly added, "...and don't worry, he told me about that newest food craze you are on so your sandwich _should not_ have any cucumbers." he triumphantly said.

"Danny told you about my diet? I don't know if I should thank him or be offended." Mindy said in a low voice almost entirely to herself.

"Yeah, he told me what you could and could not eat for lunch…" he responded slowly and hoped that he would not get sucked into a lengthy conversation about Danny. Casey always had a gut feeling about those two. He had, from the beginning, noticed the way that Danny looked at Mindy. Originally, it made him uncomfortable but he soon learned to accept Danny as part of Mindy's life. Casey never had a reason to doubt either Danny acting on his feelings or Mindy reciprocating them. Now, something had noticeably changed. There was a light glimmer in Mindy's eyes when she mentioned Danny's name. Casey recalled seeing them together this morning at her office and immediately figured it out. Casey sat forward in his chair and listened with a bit more interest.

"Yeah, well, I am not a little kid. I don't need anyone telling me what I can or can't have for lunch. Damn it, if I want cucumbers in my sandwich, I will eat cucumbers! Who does he think he is, meddling with my food? He really needs to find a girlfriend and stop worrying about my life so much!" Mindy rambled and remembered, "Oh, Casey, did you know that Christina is pregnant?!" she waited for a shocked expression which never came, so she continued, "Yeah, I know. It was a complete shock! Turns out that it could be either Danny's or Paul's. Remember Paul? Yeah, he slept with Christina right after Danny ended things with her and turns out that they are like a thing now. Not Danny and Christina…Paul and Christina… Oh, but you can't say anything to Danny. I'm sworn to secrecy, but you _were_ a pastor, so consider this my a confessional secret..." Mindy stopped to take a breath, ready to continue when Casey stopped her.

"As much as I would love to know what's going on with Danny, we're not here for that, are we?" he looked deep into Mindy's eyes. He knew her well enough to know _what_ she tried to hide behind those wide, brown eyes.

Mindy immediately looked away from Casey, knowing that he was reading through her eyes. He continued to stare at her, waiting for her to respond. She timidly looked down at her plate and then sharply back at him. "No. We are here to talk about you replacing me_ a day_ after you left." He might be good at reading my emotions, but I'm good at catching him off guard, she happily thought, more than ready to change the subject.

"A day, girl? Really? You and I were done…" he attempted to argue but knew that it was no use with Mindy and it really didn't matter how things happened. The point was that he was happily married now and he wanted Mindy to be a part of his life. Casey knew that Mindy would always be one of his best friends and he wanted to share his joy with her. He shrugged his shoulders in defeat, took a sip of wine and continued, more calmly and assuredly "Ok, fine. You want to blame me for that? Go ahead. But, just please forgive me. I know that I laid everything on you too fast last night. You're not good with surprises…so?"

Mindy rolled her eyes, faking anger. The truth was that after her heartbreak (again), her tears and the feelings of dejection, she had forgiven him. In fact, she understood that there was nothing to forgive. She was authentically ecstatic that he had found happiness. "Ok, we are here. I agreed to come. I must say that your little scene earlier at the office, completely inappropriate. If anything, apologize for that. You should feel lucky that Danny didn't punch you in the face. But whatever, we are here to talk. Go ahead. I will listen to you while I eat my sandwich." She waved her hand in a very royal manner which he took as an invitation to continue the conversation.

"Well, you and I both know that we probably would have killed each other after we got married. So, when things ended, I left for Texas to get my head straight, to get things back on track and find my path. I obviously did not go to hunt down a wife. But, I met Anne and I just knew. I knew within one hour of meeting her that she was my better half." Casey was fully immersed in his happiness, his face lit up with all the emotions that he was feeling and he smiled the widest smile that she had ever seen from him. She knew that he was completely head over heals for this Anne girl. "Mindy, she didn't even hesitate when I asked her to marry me. We both knew that our hearts were beating for each other. I could never think about being with anyone but her…" Casey paused to look at Mindy and to allow her to chime in.

"Slightly offended by that, Casey, not going to lie. A bit insulted, but continue..." she waved her hand again for him to continue. She took another bite of her sandwich and tried to chew softly so that she wouldn't drown out any of his words.

"I am sorry about that. I just can't pretend that I don't feel anything other than the biggest love that I've ever felt in my entire life. She is a good person, Mindy, she has such a warm heart. When I told her about us, she immediately asked if she could meet you."

She awkwardly finished the bite that was in her mouth, "Again with the ridiculous idea of meeting her? I don't know, Casey. I can handle you blubbering about true love and about how you're _so_ much happier with her than with me. I get it, I'm a horrible person." She shook her head reinforcing her words and remembering Danny saying something like this to her in his shower. "But is there any real reason that I should meet this girl? She _is_ a girl, right? Anne isn't short for Anthony?" she stopped and stared at Casey.

"What?! Yes, of course she's a girl." He almost shouted back to her.

"Well, you never know. My patient's brother got engaged to what he thought was a cute little redhead girl but found out when they were applying for their marriage license that she was born a man. So, don't act all surprised. It happens. Anyway, there isn't a good enough reason for me to meet her. I forgive you for replacing me. That's good enough, isn't it?" She picked her sandwich up again and took another bite, waiting for a response.

"You forgive me?!" the wave of relief that rushed over his face made Mindy happy inside. "That is great. So, we're good? You and I are still friends?" he asked a few more times, wanting to make sure he had heard her correctly. "You will stop stabbing the voodoo doll?" he jokingly asked.

"Yeah, well, _that_ I can't guarantee." Mindy responded. She gently wiped her mouth with her napkin and lowered her voice, "You want the truth? I never was mad at you. I felt bad for myself." She averted her eyes. She was not good at sharing her emotions, even if it was with Casey. "I am happy for you, though, Casey. Really, I am. I just wasn't ready for a reality check. I am still single, I haven't even met 'The One' yet and my life just feels kind of stagnant at the moment.. I was jealous of you for finding someone so quickly. I wanted you as lonely as I was, and that's not fair. I'm sorry." Mindy decided to drop the tough girl act.

Casey reached out to her and delicately pressed her hand, as a true friend. "I am sorry for making you feel anything less than perfect. I didn't ramble about Anne to try to make you feel less of a woman. You are an amazing, talented, beautiful, and smart woman. You are a perfect fit for someone, you just weren't the perfect fit for me. You will make an amazing wife someday, Mindy. Whoever gets to call you his Mrs. will be one lucky guy." Casey began moving his thumb over the top of her hand gently for reassurance.

"I appreciate that and will replay your words over and over in my head for the rest of the day to make myself feel better but you don't _have_ to say that." she graciously said. She took a deep breath in and continued, "I just have to get over this ridiculous idea of Prince Charming. There is not a knight in shining armor in my life. Just a bunch of assholes dressed in gentleman's clothes. I have to deal with it. No worries, I can live with that. I have already begun to accept the fact that I will die a mean, old, cat lady. Did you know that cats can run up to 30 miles per hour? That's perfect, I can train him to pick up my delivery food instead of waiting for those ridiculous delivery drivers..." This conversation with Casey was surprisingly therapeutic.

"An Indian cat woman? I think you'd be the first." He said thoughtfully.

"I pride myself in being ahead of the times, Casey."

They relaxed into more casual conversation and finished their lunch, both feeling a sense of relief.

"So, my flight leaves tomorrow at 11pm. Is there any way that I could convince you to have an early dinner to meet Anne? It would mean a lot to both of us. Bring a date if you want. I can invite Danny if you want?" Casey casually mentioned without thinking.

"Why would you think that I want Danny there?" she quickly responded. Mindy still could not get herself to acknowledge her feelings for Danny to Casey. Still too soon…

"Well, I didn't mean it like that. I know you two are close friends and I thought that bringing a friend might make things less awkward for you? I wouldn't want you stress barfing during dinner." Casey laid it out for Mindy, she could either just accept his suggestion to bring Danny along or she could elaborate on Danny's "friendship". Mindy did the former.

"Ok, well, as a friend I guess I can see if he'll come. He is an old man and might have plans at that time, who knows, to sleep or something? I will ask him. Can we make this a casual dinner? Nothing fancy? I would love to go somewhere where I am not required to dress up or wear heels. Simple dinner with my ex-fiance, his new wife who I just found out about and my overly dejected co-worker. This should be fun!" she faked enthusiasm.

"I will tell Anne that you agreed to have dinner and I will call you or Danny tomorrow!" Casey exuberantly said as they walked out of the bistro.

What the hell did I just agree to? Why the hell did I agree to bring Danny along?

TO BE CONTINUED


	10. Chapter 10 - What If

**I apologize for the delay in getting this chapter up! There were just so many "what if" scenarios that I had to pan out before finally sticking to this version. Once again, your comments, reviews, suggestions, etc. are appreciated! Side note - this weeks' episode was amazing!**

CHAPTER 10

"Well, shoot me in the face, Danny! I am new at this! I have _never_ had one of my serious ex-boyfriends get married!" Mindy huffed under her breath and rolled her eyes at Danny who impatiently thumped his pen against the papers which were strewn across his desk. He stared at her while she entered his office, her phone to her ear.

"You can put the phone down, Lahiri. You're standing in front of me!" he pointed to her phone as he placed his own on his desk. She angrily swiped her phone to end the call. Danny continued, "What do you mean that you have never had an ex get married? What about Tom? We all remember how _that_ worked out for you. It went well for me obviously, because your patient realized that you are an occasional nut job and chose yours truly as her doctor..."

Mindy stood over his desk and glared down at him. He grinned devilishly back at her and gestured for her to take a seat opposite him. She hesitated a moment then settled into the chair, placing her styrofoam to-go box from her lunch with Casey on the corner of Danny's desk. She left it dangerously close to the edge on purpose. Danny was a neat freak when it came to his office. He liked everything clean, sterile and mess free. The thought of that plate tipping over and its mystery contents spilling on his immaculate carpet made him nervous. Mindy smiled knowingly at him.

"Tom obviously does _not_ count because he is divorced now. Clean slate. The divorce cancels out the marriage." Mindy haughtily raised her chin to Danny. "As for that patient, I totally let you have her. She told me the week before that she wanted to name her son Edgar Allen, after some famous musician or something. Who does that? I mean, _Edgar_?!" Mindy stopped and remembered why she was in Danny's office to begin with. Mindy jumped out of her seat and walked around Danny's desk and punched him in the arm.

"Stop that!" Danny said, as he outstretched his arms to stop her from advancing any further towards him. "Mindy, a divorce does_ not_ cancel out a marriage." he calmly said as he relaxed his hands but was ready to defend himself from another surprise attack, "Think about this, your_ only_ two serious relationships ended up with the guy getting married shortly after you broke up, right? Have you ever considered that _you_ are the common denominator here? Food for thought, Min..." He could see her expression change from angry to hurt. Shit, Danny...why in the world would you tell her that?

Mindy, instead of sulking away, lunged towards Danny and smacked his arms, his legs, any body part that she could get her hands on. "You take that back, Danny! I am not the common denominator!"

"Stop it, Mindy! I take it back, I'm sorry. I take it back, I said!" he playfully pushed his chair away from her after unsuccessfully shielding his upper body from her slaps. As soon as he apologized, Mindy triumphantly walked back to her seat and plopped down.

"Apology accepted" Mindy said as she neatly smoothed out her skirt. "So, Casey wants me to meet his wife and you _are_ coming with me. I can't do this by myself because imagine how bad I will feel when she sees how amazingly hot I am? She's a teacher, she probably wears glasses, shirts...and skirts... and tights... and cute little shoes..." she pleaded with Danny, who responded by picking up his pen and thumping the stack of papers again.

"I think you are describing pretty much what _any_ woman wears, Mindy." he said impatiently.

"Whatever, Danny. Besides, you owe me big. I had to sit through a _gyno exam_, for goodness sake! Not that it matters because I do that all day, every day...but still, it was _Christina's_ gyno appointment." she winced at the memory, "Seriously, Danny. I have spent more time with you in the past week than I have with any one of my favorite movies!"

Danny had to admit that they had spent a considerable amount of time together in the last few days. "Yeah, we have. I should charge you for the future cost of ear surgery. You have no idea how your shrill voice is wreaking havoc on my eardrums!" he joked. She stared at him angrily, "Why are you so mad at me?" he asked.

"What do you mean, what am I upset about? You said that you would not go with me to meet the _new_ Mrs. Anne Peerson. Oh, even the name sounds teacher-y. Teacher-y? Is that right? Is that a word?" she asked, glancing over at Danny confused.

"No, teacher-y is not a word. Maybe she will be a good influence on you and she can teach you a few vocabulary words spoken by adults and not by teenagers. Anyway, I never said that I would not go with you, Mindy. I never told you _no_." He stopped fidgeting with the pen and stared at her with raised eyebrows.

"You said "You should go on your own because I am a bitter old man who can't do any favors for anyone. I will die alone." Mindy said, mocking him and pouting her lips "And then you said something like 'Min, you are the best friend that a lonely, depressed guy like me could ask for. I wonder what my life would be like without such an amazing and brilliant woman like you in my life' or something close to that." Mindy smiled and looked at Danny who was running his hand through his hair in frustration.

"I do_ not_ sound like that, Min, and I never would have used those words to describe you. Annoying, ridiculous, boisterous, maybe." he looked purposely at her, lowering his voice as if she were a child and said, "Boisterous is one of those adult words Casey's wife can teach you." Danny shot her a lop-sided grin.

Mindy could have jumped up and smacked him again but decided against it. She was just happy that they were back to insulting each other. She could not help but to smile at him, she felt the smile form deep inside of her. Oh, Danny, I could just kick you, Mindy thought as she sighed, that or kiss you. She felt the darned little butterfly was fluttering throughout her entire body, from the strands of her hair to the ends of her toes.

Danny fully expected a projectile hurled at him and flinched in anticipation. However, she only smiled at him. He looked at her in wonder. That is such a pretty smile, he thought as he soaked it in. It was wider, it was fuller, it was genuinely Mindy, the Mindy that he had grown to hate, then love then occasionally dislike again. There was a moment when he felt his body warmly wrapped in her gaze. He smirked at her and they held their stare for a moment, long enough to hope that it would go on forever.

As if on cue, the styrofoam plate that Mindy left teetering on the edge of Danny's desk succumbed to gravity. It came crashing to the floor and launched tidbits of Mindy's eaten sandwich to Danny's floor.

Both jumped, grateful that the moment between them had now passed. Mindy screamed, the kind of scream that you hear when someone's about to be murdered in a horror movie. She gasped for air, "That scared the crap out of me! Why did you push my food off of your desk, Danny? I was saving that for dinner."

"What? Why would I push food on my floor? I didn't even touch it. You left it too close to the edge and now my carpet is ruined. You're cleaning this up before you leave." he said, crouched down on the floor looking for any food remnants which may have fallen.

"Um, no. I did not leave it close to the edge. You _willed it_ to fall. Therefore; you pick it up. I will, as collateral for all the food you _now_ owe me," she said waving a hand over Danny's floor, "...I will graciously exchange those rain checks your accompanying me tomorrow night to dinner with the Peersons. Wear something casual but nice, none of your old man clothes. If you bought it before 2008, nope, don't even consider it. Now, if you will excuse me, I have work to do. " She got up and started to walk out of his office.

"Hold up! Min, Min..." He shook his head for a moment but ultimately allowed her to leave. He looked down to his floor and chuckled. There was only 3 very small pieces of lettuce in the to-go box, his reaction had been overly dramatic, in classic Mindy style. It's a date, he thought as he stood from the floor and tossed her empty box into his garbage can.

He had enough time to sit back down in his chair when he overheard Mindy say to anyone in earshot, "So, guys, Casey got married last week! Guess who gets to meet new Mrs. Peerson tomorrow night?!"

"You got married to Casey?!" Morgan screamed, knocking over Betsy in the process of running towards Mindy.

Danny laughed at the candidness with which she shared her news. Mindy is such an open book, Danny thought, here I am still keeping to myself about Christina and the baby. He sighed heavily at the memory of Christina. He had been able to keep her tucked away in the corner recess of his mind during the day but every so often reality would slap him in the face. He silently got up and closed his office door to avoid hearing the chatter of gossip outside his office. Today, Casey...tomorrow, it would be Christina's name on everyone's lips.

* * *

"I think it's rude! He couldn't call me to let me know he would be late?" Mindy finished her thought by hastily gulping down some wine. They had only been seated about 10 minutes and she was almost done with her third glass. She placed the glass on the table and angrily inched her chair closer to Danny. She adjusted her seat so that she could have a better view of whoever came into the restaurant.

"Isn't that what he did with the voice mail?" Danny asked, shrugging his shoulders in confusion and followed with "Stop guzzling that stuff! You're going to get wasted!"

"Whatever, Castellano. First off, what are you, like the wine patrol?" Another gulp. "Second, I am _so_ regretting this. I need to just leave. Can you stay and tell them that I received an urgent call from Rishi and that he's been kidnapped and he is being held in exchange for me? I think they will understand." Mindy said, nervously canvassing the restaurant for easy escape routes.

"No, ma'am! You are not leaving me alone with them. Besides, you're already here, Min. Just stick it out. I thought you said that you were ok with this? It's not like you're pining after the guy. Is it?" Danny asked slowly.

"Of course, not! I am only regretting meeting _her_. I know that I'm beautiful and sexy, and obviously very modest, but what if this woman is better than me?" Mindy lowered her eyes and shifted in her seat to face Danny. "Casey wouldn't have chosen her if she was not like Ms. Humanitarian. How he ended up ever dating _me_ is still a mystery. Seriously, one time I passed a homeless guy in the freezing, cold rain and pretended to get a call on my phone so that I wouldn't have to talk to him. He was creepy! But see, Danny, that's the kind of person that I am. I am okay with that. This girl is probably in the Peace Corpse or volunteers at blind children's orphanages on the days that she has off from her daily blood donations." The feeling of self-doubt which had shown up after first meeting Casey reared its head again.

"Daily blood donations, really, Min? Now that's just an exaggeration. Everything else, including the part about you being a horrible person, very spot on. Although I have never met this girl, I can pretty much guarantee that she's a keeper. Casey has excellent taste in women. I wonder if she has a sister…" He trailed off, grinning to himself, not giving a second thought about having referenced Casey and his taste in women. Even had he noticed, Mindy clearly didn't catch it.

"Hurt, much? Damn it, Danny! You're here to make me feel better and _not_ to kick me while I'm down!" Mindy said before whistling to the waiter. Her wine glass was empty and she needed another.

"Seriously, Min? Who whistles at the waiter? Are you Italian for the day?! Lay off of the wine because you don't want to do something stupid tonight." Danny argued. There was no use, the waiter hurriedly made his way to their table.

Danny glanced around the restaurant and then to Mindy. Her "casual" outfit consisted of a dress which he had seen only one other time on her: the 'Bon Voyage' party that Christina and he had thrown the _then_ happy couple leaving to Haiti. He found it ironic that she had chosen that same dress for her going away party to leave with Casey and now, as a welcome-home type dinner for Casey and his new bride. Still, she looks absolutely stunning tonight, he thought. He felt under-dressed in his jeans and t-shirt. Leave it to Mindy to consider a cocktail dress "casual" dinner attire.

Mindy took a smaller sip of wine and looked around the room, wondering how fast she could haul ass to one of the exits without Danny being able to catch her. Damn it, I already had too much wine and can't sprint towards any of these doors without stumbling or falling on my ass, she was thinking when she noticed a petite woman enter the restaurant. This young woman seemed to be searching for someone. She was in her late 20's, petite and slender, naturally light brown hair which rested just above her shoulders. She was wearing a fitted navy blue pencil skirt, white-collar button down shirt tucked in and accented by a thin belt and cute pink ballerina flats. She was not stunningly beautiful, but there was an air of kindness in her face that Mindy acknowledged as extremely pretty, in a Natalie Portman sort of way. Mindy immediately knew this was Anne. Mindy stared at the young woman for a moment before she nudged Danny in the shoulder. "That _has_ to be her," she said, her eyes not breaking away from the female figure standing at a distance before her.

"She's cute." Danny nodded approvingly. "Ask Casey if she has a sister." He chuckled but stopped when Mindy punched him in the arm.

"That is inappropriate, Danny. But, she _is_ super cute. She even _looks_ like a teacher, a good one, the one that gives all of her students A's whether they deserve it or not...and everyone probably calls her "Ms. A" which could either be used to mean Ms. Anne or Ms. Awesome or even Ms. Amazing. Danny, Danny...look, she's not wearing crocks, which I was expecting. Look! Check out those cute pink flats that she has on! I have those! And that skirt, I totally love it!" Mindy was getting excited about meeting this woman.

Casey walked into the restaurant not more than a few seconds later. He immediately placed Anne's hand in his and brought their entwined hands to his lips and gave her a gentle kiss. This gesture was not lost on Danny, who had been unable to pull his eyes away from the happy couple in front of him. He finally looked to Mindy to read her face.

Mindy stood slowly and smiled towards the pair but still there was a bit of reserve behind her eyes, which Danny interpreted as self-doubt. He could see that she was comparing herself to Casey's new bride. Danny unconsciously reached down and grabbed her hand, gently squeezing it for reassurance. He instantly recalled how they had held hands for a moment during their meeting with Christina and Paul just a few short days before today. The memory made his heart sink. They had each gone through _so_ much this week.

Mindy looked down at her hand and looked to Danny, her heart in her throat. She had so many thoughts and emotions run through her mind in that split second. She had compiled a mental list of comparisons between herself and this pretty, young woman standing a few hundred feet away from her, she felt she had an inadequate amount of good or charitable qualities which Anne was likely to have in abundance, she felt excitement and nervousness at seeing Anne for the first time...all of that topped off with the look in Danny's face when she looked to him just now. There was fondness in his eyes, there was a little bit of sadness but there was comfort. He was her support. He was her crutch. She could have just fainted from the feeling.

Danny gave Mindy a chance to compose herself as he called the couple over. Within seconds, the four were standing awkwardly around the table. Mindy barely had time to think of what to say when Anne quickly turned and spoke to her, "Hello, you _must be_ Mindy! I am Anne. You have no idea how excited I am to meet you. Casey told me so many wonderful things about you, I just _had_ to meet you when we came to New York." Anne radiated kindness. There was such a calming tone to every word that came out of her mouth, with just a slight hint of a Texas drawl. Anne smiled to Casey and continued, "I must say I was a tad hesitant at first to meet Casey's ex-fiance, but this…this is exactly what I needed. You are exactly what I imagined." She finished and pulled Mindy into a tight hug. Mindy went limp in her arms and looked to Danny with a look of confusion. Anne released her tight grip on Mindy and enthusiastically added, "Oh, and can I say that I love your dress?"

Mindy felt confused yet relieved at the open nature of Anne's conversation. "Oh, thank you! It's nice to meet you, too, Anne." Mindy hesitantly started but decided to let go of her reservations about this dinner and just trust her gut feeling, "Hey, your skirt is fabulous! I have those same shoes!" Mindy squealed. "I am searching for those in a light teal color but..." Danny coughed before she could finish. Mindy sheepishly began the introduction, "Oh, yeah. Anne, this is _my_ Danny Castellano, he's my colleague and friend." She did not realize that she had referred to him as '_my_' Danny.

"So, you are Danny? Nice to put a face to the name." Anne smiled and pretended not to have noticed Mindy's term of endearment. Just as with Mindy, Anne swooped in and gave Danny the biggest bear hug that she could give.

"Now that is a tight grip for such a tiny lady!" Danny joked after being released from the hug.

They all laughed and sat down at the table. To any outside stranger, the four of them painted a picture of domestic felicity, each happy couple out shining the other. Mindy finally took Danny's advice and opted not to order another glass of wine. She felt buzzed but not too much.

Mindy couldn't help but to look at Anne with wonder. Anne glowed with confidence, happiness and _love_. Everything about her screamed that she was head over heels with Casey. Mindy occasionally caught the pair gazing at each other for long periods of time without breaking from their stare. I want to be that happy, she dreamily thought. I want to find that one person who can make me so happy I won't know what to do with myself. She let out a deep sigh and glanced to Danny who quickly looked away from her.

Danny noticed Casey and Anne's obvious happiness and remembered his early marriage days with Christina. There was no comparing the two. Danny had never been so much in love as these two clearly were. Christina never glowed with felicity like Anne was. He was merely content with being somewhat happy and never felt the I-Can't-Live-Without-You type love that he was witness to this evening.

Danny stole a glance to Mindy and wondered what it feel like for whomever was lucky enough to receive that type of emotion from her. He silently mapped out the what-if scenario through his head, as he had done dozens of times before, imagining Mindy looking at him with eyes of love and complete happiness He now looked to Mindy and felt something different. This time when he looked at her, she looked back with those wide-brown eyes that she had a habit of showing him recently. He quickly looked away. Too much what-if going through his head, it was clouding his reality. There was no way that Mindy Lahiri was looking at him that way. The way he had repeatedly imagined that she would look at him for several years. Or _had she_?

Danny quickly turned his attention to Anne. "So, I understand that you're a teacher, Anne? Little kids or adolescents?"

Anne loved talking about her classroom kids, as she called them. "Middle school, I teach 7th grade. They are a great bunch. This is only my 3rd year so I'm still relatively new but, it's the best decision I could have made." Her smile was genuine.

Casey interjected, "Anne has been Teacher of the Year two years running. She is great with kids. Not only does she teach, but she has volunteered at the town orphanage the last several years as well. Everyone loves her. No one more than me, of course." Casey sweetly kissed Anne on her cheek.

Mindy shot Danny a look when Casey mentioned Anne volunteering for the children's orphanage. "Oh, you volunteer at the orphanage? That sounds amazing... The closest work that I do with children is give teenage girls advice on how _not to get knocked up_ before the age of 18." Mindy said, shrugging her shoulders.

Anne immediately responded, "Casey told me about you being a doctor. That is absolutely amazing, Mindy. Can I call you Mindy? I just feel like I know you..." Mindy nodded yes and Anne continued "I really respect those in your profession. You guys put your heart and soul to care for expectant mothers and help in the miracle of life. I could only hope that I affect lives as much as you do." Anne looked between Danny and Mindy.

There was nothing fake about Anne's praise of Mindy and Danny's occupation. She genuinely respected them. Mindy felt oddly uncomfortable. She had come into this dinner expecting to feel less than Anne and fully expected to be outdone with regards to charities or humanitarian causes. Instead, Anne was praising _her_. Just then, Mindy realized how amazing Anne really was. Modest, genuine, kind and everything that Casey deserved.

There was a sense of relief that overcame Danny after Anne took a moment to praise them. He smiled when he saw Mindy's reaction to Anne's reassurance that she was, regardless of her own self-doubt, a good person. Mindy did not volunteer her time as others would, but Mindy _was_ a good person. She cared for people. She had become a doctor to help people.

Unfortunately for Danny, the topic of children continued for a little while, which continuously reminded him of his uncertain future with Christina and the possibility of being a father. He withdrew into himself but after a little while, decided that it was best to enjoy himself for the evening. His future would not be decided tonight, he needed to enjoy his time now. He looked around the table and saw happy faces, the one weighing the most on him was obviously Mindy. She looked content. He signed heavily, forced a smile and joined back in the conversation, occasionally laughing here or there at Mindy.

The evening progressed without any hiccups. During all of this small talk, Casey had remained a relatively silent listener. He spoke when spoken to but spent the majority of the evening observing. He observed Danny and Mindy and came up with the same theory over and over: Danny and Mindy were meant to be _together_. There was something that didn't sit well with him, though. He recalled his lunch with Mindy and her mentioning that Christina was pregnant. There was the hiccup. There was that uneasy feeling he had about the two.

Casey didn't even have enough time to finish his thought when Danny almost choked on the piece of shrimp that he had placed in his mouth. Danny quickly recovered and groaned, his face sternly faced the entrance of the restaurant. All eyes turned towards where he was staring.

Mindy rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders. "Well, there goes the evening. Of all places, they pick this restaurant?" She said, straightening her napkin and rearranging it on her lap. "Is it too much of a stretch to pretend that we didn't see them?" she asked looking around the table at the others.

Anne looked at the pair entering the restaurant and to Casey, not following what was going on.

Casey lowered his voice and whispered to her, "That's Danny's ex-wife with her boyfriend, who happens to be an old colleague of Mindy and Danny's..."

TO BE CONTINUED


End file.
